AgFunder Report: $2.6 billion invested in agrifood tech startups in 2017

Everyone is talking about cryptocurrency and blockchain. However, there are a lot of other growing technology sectors that not many people are not talking about. Agriculture is the mainstay of any country. The agriculture industry is also going through transformation and innovation. Investment in agrifood technology startups is also growing. According to the latest annual report from AgFunder, a total  of $2.6 billion invested in agrifood tech startups in 2017.  That is 29% increase over the previous year, 2017. AgFunder is an online Venture Capital Platform investing in the bold and exceptional entrepreneurs transforming our food and agriculture system.

The agrifood tech sector appears to be rebounding from the lows of 2016 when funding dropped 17%, bolstered by large deals, which characterized 2017 funding for agrifood tech startups as the sector continued to mature and some large, international investors placed bets.

The raw data for the AgriFood Tech Funding Report comes from Crunchbase, which gathers publicly available information such as press releases and US Securities and Exchange Filings, as well as crowdsourcing directly from the industry. AgFunder contributes a significant portion of raw data through its own data collection methods that include private communications with investors and companies. “The raw data is then heavily curated by the AgFunder team to ensure that it is relevant, accurate, up-to-date, complete, and categorized according to AgFunder’s proprietary tagging system for inclusion in our report. We believe our database represents the most comprehensive and curated database of agrifood tech companies globally. While we are happy to share our findings, we reserve all rights with respect to AgFunder research and this report, and  require it to be fully and accurately cited when any of the data is used,” AgFunder said in the report.

Below are excerpts from the report:

Top 20 Farm Tech Deals

• 

  Top 20 Farm Tech Deals – Source: AgFunder

  There is perhaps no more visible marker of the
  maturing of the farm tech startup ecosystem than the
  growing values of the top farm tech deals. In 2016
  only two top deals were valued at more than $50
  million, but in 2017, half of the top 20 deals
  exceeded $50 million.

• The Top 20 deals for startups operating at the farm
  level were wide-ranging, including Novel Farming
  Systems, Ag Biotechnology, Agribusiness
  Marketplaces, and Farm Management Software,
  Sensing, & IoT
• The first sign that 2017 would be a big year for farm
  tech was the $150 million Series A for Chinese
  Agribusiness Marketplace Maihuolang, followed by
  indoor farm Plenty’s $200 million Series A. These
  large, early rounds set a new tone for farm tech deals.
• • European insect farming group Protix raised the
  largest insect farming deal on record with a $50
  million round. Though excitement around insect
  farming persists, it has not yet been matched with
  equivalent funding.

You can read the entire report here