In this inaugural European food tech and agtech startup report in collaboration with F&A Next, we detail the $1.6bn of funding across 421 deals. While this was on par with the total in 2017, there was 23% growth in the number of deals and the majority of activity took place at the earliest stages.

There was a 200% increase in funding to upstream startups - those operating closer to the farm or in the supply chain before the retailer, but a 50% decrease in downstream investment as several food delivery startups have now exited by IPO or M&A.

Seed stage deals accounted for nearly 70% of deal flow, compared to 55% globally, and 15% of dollars invested compared to just 4% globally.

The investor base supporting agrifood innovation is varied with only a few dedicated sector funds, but it’s growing and 603 unique investors made investments during the year.

The UK and France lead the way in terms of investment: $388m across 103 deals and $324m across 62 deals respectively.