As part of AgFunder’s role in funding startups in food and agriculture, we have become a leading intelligence source for the sector.
As well as providing daily news coverage through AgFunderNews, we publish periodic research on trends shaping the future of food and agriculture. Our widely-cited research includes investment reports on venture capital funding to foodtech and agtech startups, emerging market agrifoodtech and climate trends, country deep-dives, and resource guides for startups.
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Global agrifoodtech showed some signs of recovery in 2024, reaching $16 billion in funding, just a 4% drop from 2023. Increased investment in developed markets such as the US and the Netherlands, and developing nations like India, hint at better days to come. But no one’s out of the woods yet.
Welcome to our first developing markets agrifoodtech report!
The biggest takeaway about developing markets agrifoodtech is that funding grew substantially between 2023 and 2024 (63%) versus a 4% decline in global agrifoodtech.
Agrifoodtech funding in Asia-Pacific (APAC) has demonstrated a remarkable recovery in 2024 from the lows of the last couple of years. As of the end of October 2024, APAC agrifoodtech startups have raised $4.2 billion in funding, a 38% increase on the $3.1 billion raised over the same period in 2023.
African agrifoodtech funding is showing mild growth and recovery in 2024, raising $145 million in the first half of 2024, a 1.6% year-over-year increase. But it still represents a small fraction of global investment, at just 1.6%.
This comes after a challenging period in 2023 where African agrifoodtech investment declined 62% to reach just $275 million.
In 2023, Indian agrifoodtech startups raised $940 million across 129 deals, down 60% from 2022.
The number of deals remained almost flat with 129 closing in 2023 compared to 133 deals in 2022, indicating smaller deal sizes given the steep decline in dollars raised.
A first-of-its-kind report by AgFunder and ISF Advisors, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, sheds light on the pressing need and opportunities for private investment in climate adaptation within the agriculture sectors of emerging markets, focusing on the pivotal role of smallholder farmers. This is the executive summary from the full report which is also available to download.
A first-of-its-kind report by AgFunder and ISF Advisors, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, sheds light on the pressing need and opportunities for private investment in climate adaptation within the agriculture sectors of emerging markets, focusing on the pivotal role of smallholder farmers.
The food and agriculture technology market was badly hit by the venture capital downturn in 2023, raising $15.6 billion in funding, a 49% year-over-year decline. That drop was more than the broader venture capital, which fell 38% in 2023.
Ten years ago, Michael Dean and Rob Leclerc incorporated AgFunder with the mission to bring more investment and innovation to the agriculture and food sectors.
This was the same year Monsanto acquired Climate Corporation in what remains the most pivotal deal of agrifoodtech history.
The inaugural Latin American AgriFoodTech Investment Report released by AgFunder, in collaboration with SP Ventures, Alianza Team, BASF and Cibersons, details $7.3 billion of investment in the sector since 2018.
In 2022, agrifoodtech startups, innovating from farm to fork, raised $1.7 billion in funding, an increase from under $1 billion in 2018 but a 39% decline on record-breaking 2021 investment levels, in line with the global venture capital pullback.
In the first half of 2023, Asia-Pacific agrifoodtech startups pulled in $2.6 billion, nearly 50% less than in H1 2022. This follows a 58% year-over-year drop between the record-breaking 2021 and 2022.
Investment in African agrifoodtech startups reached a record-breaking $636 million in 2022, a 25% year-over-year increase which bucked the global venture capital decline.
But investor sentiment changed in 2023 with just $99 million raised in the first half, down 77% compared to the first half of 2022.
El primer Informe de Inversión en AgriFoodTech de América Latina, lanzado por AgFunder en colaboración con SP Ventures, Alianza Team, BASF y Cibersons, informa una inversión total de 7,3 mil millones de dólares en el sector desde 2018. Además, en 2022, las startups de agrifoodtech, que buscan innovar en todos los eslabones de la cadena de suministro, desde el campo hasta la mesa, recaudaron 1,7 mil millones de dólares en inversiones.
Startups agrifoodtech da América Latina captaram 1,7 bilhão de dólares em 2022, uma queda de 39% em relação a 2021, quando valuations inflacionados e seis negociações de nove dígitos impulsionaram o financiamento para mais de 2,8 bilhões de dólares.
India was not immune to the headwinds impacting global markets in 2022, with funding to Indian agrifoodtech startups dropping 33% year-over-year to $2.4 billion. The decline in the number of deals closed was even more pronounced. But there were bright spots upstream, in climate-related categories closer to the farm.
Global investment in foodtech and agtech (agrifoodtech) startups totaled $29.6bn in 2022, a 44% decline on record-breaking 2021 levels.
The decline is largely in-line with global venture capital markets, however several climate-related categories bucked the global trend posting year-over-year increases.
India has overtaken China as the best funded agrifoodtech ecosystem in Asia-Pacific.
In this fourth iteration of the India AgriFoodTech Investment report, in collaboration with Omnivore, we detail a record-breaking $4.6 billion in investment in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2022.
アジア・パシフィック地域のアグリ・フードテックスタートアップへの投資額は、2021年に152億ドルに達し、過去10年間で累計投資額が550億ドルを超え、世界のアグリ・フードテックの30％を占めるという記録を打ち立てました。
Investment in Asia-Pacific agrifoodtech startups broke records in 2021 when it reached $15.2bn, taking investment to over $55 billion in 10 years, and accounting for 30% of global foodtech and agtech funding.
In the past five years, early-stage investors have pumped more than $1 billion into African startups innovating for the food and agriculture industry, achieving a record-breaking $482 million in 2021 alone. That was a 250% jump year-over-year, but still represents less than 1% of global agrifoodtech investment.
Some $9.2 billion dollars was invested in agrifoodtech ventures in Europe in 2021.
Similar to the global agrifoodtech scene, investors mostly backed online grocery ventures and other asset-light downstream technologies. European e-Grocery startups raised $4.2 billion, representing 43% of Europe’s total agrifoodtech investment capital and a 1,300% year-over-year jump.
Where did the rest go?
Venture capital investors pumped $51.7 billion into agrifood technologies in 2021; an 85% increase over 2020. The theme of the year: doubling-down (and tripling, and quadrupling-down.) Agrifoodtech sectors that took off in response to the Covid-19 pandemic not only remained the most popular investment categories; they exploded with new deals.
Covid-19 had already reached India by the start of the 2020-2021 fiscal year, with the country soon going into a nationwide lockdown. Consumption dipped, supply chains broke down, and the economy slowed. Despite this, India’s agrifood startup sector experienced an investment boom, with a 100% year-on-year jump in total venture funding.
Farm Tech investing soared to $7.9 billion in 2020, topping 2019 investments by $2.3 trillion, or 41%, according to AgFunder’s latest Farm Tech Investment Report.
To put this in perspective, Farm Tech’s acceleration was about six percentage points greater than agrifoodtech overall — that’s foodtech and farm tech combined — and 37 percentage points higher than global VC’s year-over-year increase in 2020 (which Crunchbase pegged at just 4%.)
Our news site AFN conducted a series of interviews with the corporate venture capital arms of six of the world’s leading agribusinesses to form the backbone of a deep dive into their activity, areas of focus and levels of investment over a five year period. This report compiles those interviews and offers a data snapshot of CVC investment in agriculture.
European agrifoodtech ventures raised $3.3 billion in 2020, a 15% drop from 2019. But we expect the total investment tally to reach $3.8 billion as new 2020 deals come to light. At that level, Europe’s 2020 funding would only represent a 2.6% decrease from 2019, mostly on the back of a drop in late stage activity, as early stage investment activity increased.
2020 was a year which turned even optimists into skeptics. Yet those working in China’s agrifoodtech ecosystem have a lot to feel positive about.
While general private equity and VC investment levels sank 50% in China compared to 2019, agrifood startup investing increased 66.1% year-on-year, next to a 34.5% rise globally.
What a year. It would be an understatement to say it’s been tough for most but for agrifoodtech, it was a blow-out year. Startups raised $26.1 billion in 2020, a 15.5% year-over-year increase, which we expect to increase to more than $30 billion as new 2020 deals come to light. This would represent 34.5% growth over 2019.
The agricultural industry is actively developing systems for automating management processes, but the abundance of choices may be confusing. To help, AgroHub – supported by AgFunder and Top Lead – has carried out research to create a guide to farm management systems (FMS).
We’re just over halfway through 2020, and already it has been a year like no other in living memory. Given the economic implications of the global Covid-19 pandemic, we’ve put together a mid-year review to take stock of the agrifoodtech investment landscape during these unprecedented times. Amazingly, the sector has held up well, raising $8.8 billion in total across 798 deals, according to currently available data.
FY2020 was a difficult financial year in India, with a slowdown in consumption growth, deteriorating public finances, and overall economic malaise. And that’s before Covid-19 arrived on the scene. Total investments in Indian agrifood startups for FY2020 stood at $1.1 billion, down 56% from FY2019. Deal volume saw marginal growth with 133 deals in FY2020 compared to 125 deals in the previous year.