Clik here to view.
AFN’s top 20 guest articles in 2020
As we count down the final few days until 2021, we on the AFN editorial team have been taking some time to look back at what has been a momentous year in agrifoodtech. Our coverage of this cutting-edge...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Gates can create world’s biggest agrifoodtech testbed, but needs to win over...
Last month, US land investment magazine The Land Report published research indicating that Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda own the largest stock of private farmland in the US. About...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Why AgFunder invested in Jüsto
Editor’s note: Rob Leclerc is founding partner, and Sofía Ramírez is adjunct partner, at AgFunder, which invested in Jüsto’s seed round last year. AgFunder is AFN’s parent company. This week Jüsto, a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Kicking off our new Clubhouse partnership by celebrating women innovators in...
On Monday evening, we launched our new Clubhouse partnership with Food+Tech Connect in the best way possible; by celebrating women innovators in food on International Women’s Day. We had over 50 women...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Is this the fastest-growing vertical farming business in the world?
Indoor agriculture is competitive. While there is so much whitespace for vertical farms and high-tech greenhouses to grow and sell produce regionally, those that are VC-backed seem to have been...
View ArticleClik here to view.
This year’s biggest agrifoodtech IPO will probably involve a company you’ve...
When it comes to companies going public, agrifood seems to be reaching its inflexion point. The SPAC craze continues, with everything from indoor farms to gluten-free biltong merging with listed...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Conservis’ unusual exit to Rabobank-Telus JV shows management team’s mettle
“It takes time; a lot more time than people were prepared for…” Speaking about VC-backed farm management software company Conservis, founder Pat Christie hit the nail on the head when we chatted early...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Don’t blame business for cultivated meat’s cell line shortage. Public funding...
This week, The Guardian‘s sister newspaper The Observer published an article on the issue of limited access to cell lines – one of the essential building blocks for the production of cell-cultured...
View ArticleClik here to view.
AgFunder exit review: John Deere’s $250m acquisition of Bear Flag Robotics
Editor’s note: Bear Flag Robotics, an agtech startup focused on automation, has been acquired by John Deere for $250 million. Bear Flag Robotics was a portfolio company of agrifoodtech VC AgFunder,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Culling 150,000 healthy pigs shouldn’t ‘just happen’ in a functioning food...
Last week, the UK’s National Pig Association (NPA) warned that as many as 150,000 healthy pigs could be killed and disposed of amid a chronic shortage of slaughterhouse workers and heavy goods vehicle...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Prince Charles’ ode to private markets at COP26 was a clarion call for agtech
The opening speeches of the World Leaders Summit at COP26 in Glasgow, the UK on Monday were an amalgam of emotional calls to the world to bring down greenhouse gas emissions and save the planet. Famed...
View ArticleClik here to view.
COP26 produced a ‘yoyo of feelings’ about agrifood’s climate role
“It’s been a yoyo of feelings,” I overheard one delegate tell another in the Green Zone of COP26 in Glasgow last week. That was my experience too – and that of many I’ve spoken to about the UN climate...
View ArticleClik here to view.
UPDATE: Bayer inks new digital ag data infrastructure deal with Microsoft:...
UPDATED: 19 November, 2021, 15:36pm GMT to add comments from a Microsoft spokesperson about data sources and revenue generation through the partnership. We’ve all seen those announcements before:...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bowery’s KKR-led $150m credit facility may hint at robust business model,...
Bowery secured a $150 million credit facility from leading global private equity firm and broke ground on two new farms in the Atlanta, Georgia and Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas metro areas last week. The...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Why AgFunder invested in Kula Bio
Editor’s Note: Rob Leclerc is a founding partner at AgFunder, AFN’s parent company that invested in biofertilizer startup Kula Bio’s seed round last year. In the wake of Kula Bio’s $50 million Series A...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How significant is the Bayer-Microsoft deal for agtech? The response
Editor’s Note: This post is co-authored by AFN’s editor Louisa Burwood-Taylor alongside Mark Johnson, who recently led grain trading platform GrainBridge to acquisition and was cofounder of Descartes...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Putin’s invasion of Ukraine won’t just disrupt food supplies – but food...
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which began yesterday, would appear to be driven as much by Vladimir Putin’s paranoid delusion and ultra-nationalist ideology as anything else. But Ukraine is also blessed...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Q&A: SupPlant’s Revital Kremer on bringing precision ag to more female...
“I live and breathe technology,” says Revital Kremer, chief technology officer of SupPlant. After years spent working in various industries including the military and videogaming, she wanted an...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Meet the Female Founder: How EIO’s Tamara Leigh became a powerhouse in dairy...
Every once in a while, an ag journalist will make the leap from covering startups to actually running one. Such has been the case for Tamara Leigh, who spent 20 years in agriculture journalism before...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Impossible Foods’ new CEO starts today. He has some big decisions to make...
Today, Patrick Brown steps down as CEO of Impossible Foods – the plant-based protein juggernaut he founded in 2011. Peter McGuinness, former president and chief operating officer at yogurt brand...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Earth Day 2022 calls on us to ‘invest in our planet.’ The agrifoodtech...
The theme of Earth Day 2022 is to “invest in our planet.” EarthDay.org, the group behind the event, says on its website that to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and keep global warming at 1.5°C...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Tracking corporate climate goals for meat & dairy is more crucial than ever
Of all the corporate climate goals out there, those from the world’s biggest meat and dairy companies tend to ignite the most debate. On the one hand, many of these companies have come forward in the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How can the global agrifood system build resilience amid climate change? Look...
“Resilience” is a word that comes up a lot when we talk about the war in Ukraine, with news outlets around the world zeroing in on the courage of Ukrainians and their willingness to stand together in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
We taste-tested GOOD Meat’s cultivated chicken. Here’s our verdict
Eat Just subsidiary GOOD Meat recently broke ground on what it says is “the largest cultivated meat facility in Asia” – and this AFN reporter went along to give some of the company’s animal-free flesh...
View ArticleClik here to view.
It’s time for a Marshall Plan for food
Editor’s Note: Johan Jorgensen is the founder of Sweden Foodtech. The horrific events in Ukraine continue to fill global hearts, minds, and, to a far lesser degree, bellies. Perhaps this is the wake-up...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A mini guide to agroforestry: what is it & how can it improve ag and fight...
Like many regenerative and restorative agricultural practices, agroforestry is a newish term for an ancient concept. Cultures around the world have for centuries relied on traditional land-use...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A letter from Israel: Ecosystem-defining culture and the positive role of...
Editor’s Note: Hello, dear AFN readers. This is the first of a planned monthly column I intend to write to share thoughts on events I’ve attended, conversations I’ve had, and general musings on our...
View ArticleClik here to view.
By the numbers: the state of the world’s soil in 2022
For this year’s world soil day, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reminded us that 95% of the food we eat comes directly or indirectly from our soils. In other words,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The year in agrifoodtech: Observations from writing a year’s worth of news...
Each week, I write and publish AFN‘s Week in Agrifoodtech feature. For those not familiar, these are news roundups of the biggest stories in agrifoodtech from around the web each week — from fundraises...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Innovation in agriculture and food and its vital role in fighting climate change
Ariadne Caballero is a partner at SP Ventures, an early-stage fund investing in agrifoodtech across Latin America. Juliana De Podesta is head of ESG at SP Ventures. When we talk about current...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Letter from 2023: a vintage year to invest in foodtech and agtech
2023 could be the best year yet to invest in foodtech and agtech. Sure, we’ve all said this before; that’s part and parcel of being in an industry since the beginning. And with all the amazing...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Startups and scientists weigh in on future of vertical farming: “A lot of it...
“A lot of it is a DIY hobby industry right now.” David Farquhar, CEO of technology provider Intelligent Growth Solutions (IGS), is talking to AFN about the primary industry his company serves: vertical...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Keep calm and carry on: Navigating the trough of disillusionment for...
Setting aside the sinister photo on the recent cover story of Bloomberg Businessweek (a cheap stunt: US plant-based meat sales may not be red hot, but Beyond Meat patties were not grey, last time I...
View ArticleClik here to view.
‘Technology is a means, not an end’ in farming: Key takeaways from Indoor...
According to dozens of attendees at this year’s Indoor Ag-Con, the biggest step indoor farming needs to take right now is towards more collaboration — with one another, with traditional field farmers,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Letter from a still “niche” agrifoodtech industry
Hello everyone. I’m back! Again not sticking to my monthly or even bimonthly editorial target — apologies — but here we are. It’s been a busy couple of months that included a great trip to San...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Got Wood Milk? MilkPEP spoof ad sparks debate, but will it revive flagging...
“Wood Milk started with a simple idea,” says actress Aubrey Plaza in a recent spoof ad from MilkPEP, the dairy industry-backed body behind the iconic ‘Got Milk’ ads. “I saw a tree and I asked myself:...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Letter on the way to Latin America
Ok, I’m not actually on my way right now but in a couple of weeks’ time, together with our co-author and partner SP Ventures, we will be launching our first-ever Latin American agrifoodtech investment...
View ArticleClik here to view.
🎥 Reporting on the Latin American agrifoodtech ecosystem from São Paulo, Brazil
While Latin America represented just 5% of total global agrifoodtech investment in 2022, the sector accounted for 21% of all venture capital investment in the region last year, according to AgFunder‘s...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Letter from the great food fight
Editor’s Note: Any views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of the wider AgFunder or AgFunderNews teams. Stepping into a food systems conference can sometimes feel like...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Indoor ag has hit ‘a bump on the S curve,’ not the trough of disillusionment...
There are plenty of labels these days for the state of controlled environment agriculture (CEA): depression; correction; the increasingly popular “trough of disillusionment,” that thrive-or-die low...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Technology can’t solve everything but more Africa agrifoodtech investment is...
Last week we published our second Africa agrifoodtech investment report and it was a bumper edition of over 50 pages showcasing when and where investors are placing bets on the region’s food and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Letter from Singapore: Connecting the dots between climate change and food...
It’s been a busy few months of travel for me over here, made a bit less busy with a bout of Covid ruining my plans to finally meet the KMZero crew in Valencia (the new strains are pretty brutal so stay...
View ArticleClik here to view.
10 years in indoor ag: After a decade of tough lessons, indoor ag nears ‘the...
“We felt like we were doing a lot of things right. Only in retrospect [are there] a lot of lessons that we learned that I’d like to share and hope some of you can learn from the stuff that we...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What’s in a name? How the term ‘AgriFoodTech’ came to be
Louisa Burwood-Taylor is the managing editor and head of news & research for AgFunder and AgFunderNews. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Reflecting on 10 Years of AgFunder
Michael Dean is founder and a partner at AgFunderNews’ parent company, AgFunder. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of AgFunderNews. Looking...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Letter from 2024: Mind your investors!
Happy New Year AgFunderNews family! I’m midway through my now-annual detox and gut reset. (It’s only my second time but calling it annual sounds more impressive!) Each year I do this, I learn more and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Groundswell 2024 hinted at the common ground regenerative agriculture needs
The regenerative agriculture movement has changed a lot since I first heard the phrase in 2014. I’m pretty sure Paul McMahon, managing partner of fund manager SLM Partners, was the first person to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Notes from the food-health nexus: how can we get consumer pull for nutrient...
Lately, I’ve found myself in more and more conversations about the “food-health nexus”: the notion that what we eat is directly impacting our health. It’s not just that kale, green smoothies, or eating...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Arla Bovaer case highlights a new frontier for agrifoodtech: combatting...
Tom Shields is a partner at AgFunder, the parent company of AgFunderNews. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of AgFunderNews. Innovation in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
2024 was ‘a year of reckoning for agtech’
As more than one person interviewed for this article noted, 2024 was something of a year of reckoning for agtech. That was certainly true of agtech funding, which has staggered along for the last...
View Article