Phytech – A leading, Israeli-based precision farming company. Specializes in sensors that attach directly to crops that work with soil moisture and microclimate sensors to provide the most accurate condition of a certain crop. It pairs these stats with yield improving suggestions for farmers directly provided through an easy-to-use app. The company recently closed Series A funding to invest in their technology platform and commercialize around the world.
Praedictus Climate Solutions – A new company recently funded $125k from the University of Chicago’s Innovation Fund. They specialize in agricultural data and have developed a software that provides real- time crop projections. The founders have been researching agricultural modeling since mid 2013, but they are still in the very early stages of their business.
Adaptive Symbiotic Technologies – A Seattle-based biotechnology company that just raised $3.4M in its Series A round. They specialize in a microbial seed treatment process that help plants to resist through environmental stresses, such as drought and extreme temperatures. They are now hoping to move more towards sales and commercialization of their tested product.
Strider – Brazilian big data startup. Provides tables, charts, and maps to keep track of pests, water, other operations across the farm. Unique among Brazilian startups in that they are trying to bring their tech to the US. They reflect that American farms are more likely to adapt their new technology, but it can be hard to compete with local startups.
California Safe Soil – US startup who just raised $5.9M in equity financing. They have a process for taking food waste from supermarkets and turning it into fertilizer. They have a unique “aerobic, enzymatic digestion technology” that is estimated to be 720 times more efficient than just composting.
These five startups prove several things. First, there is a lot of money in AgTech startups. These five I chose cover a wide range in scope, but I also saw some of the larger investments I saw were upwards of $17M. Investors clearly are very interested in AgTech and this doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. One thing that surprised me was just how global AgTech is as well. While there are a lot of US based startups, there are plenty of startups from other agriculturally-interested countries including Japan, England, Kenya, and more. Along with the US, India seems to be the biggest center for agricultural innovation. It was then very interesting to see Strider’s attempt to bring their product to a global, specifically a US market.
Other noteworthy trends include the emphasis on Big Data startups. With Praedictus and Strider, there seems to be a bigger market for agricultural software modeling and apps than I had anticipated. I had also expected to see more biotechnology and robotics companies represented. In addition, I had not expected to see as many food delivery services as were getting funding. Of course,this only represents a small swath of the AgTech startups out there, but it gives a good idea of what is currently being funded.
Works Consulted:
- Burwood-Taylor, Louisa. 2016. “Brazilian Big Data Startup Strider on Agtech Startups and Coming to America.” AgFunderNews. January 25. https://agfundernews.com/brazilian-big-data-startup-strider-on-agtech-startups-and-coming-to-america5293.html.
- Manning, Lauren. 2016a. “Adaptive Symbiotic Technologies Raises $3.4m Series A on AgFunder.” AgFunderNews. January 21. https://agfundernews.com/seed-treatment-company-ast-raises-3-4m-series-a-on-agfunder5282.html.
- “Fundings-in-Brief: Ag Data, Food Waste Tech, Light Aircraft & More Bring in $43m of Agtech Investment.” AgFunderNews. January 21. https://agfundernews.com/fundings-in-brief-ag-data-food-waste-light-aircraft-more-bring-in-43m-of-agtech-investment5284.html.
- “Phytech Closes Series A Round.” 2016. VentureBeat. Accessed January 26. http://venturebeat.com/2015/12/28/phytech-closes-series-a-round/.
- “Praedictus Climate Solutions.” 2016. Accessed January 26. http://praedictus.com/.