The research firm CB Insights says investors put more than $700 million into agricultural-technology companies in 2017, far more than the combined $565 million of the two preceding years, said the Financial Times. And the founder of Pontifax Agriculture Technology Fund says 2018 is likely to be another strong year for ag-tech funding.
“The interest in the sector is not going away,” Pontifax founder Ben Belldegrun told the FT. “The fundamentals demand innovation.” Farmers are looking for ways to reduce costs and boost productivity to get some breathing room amid tight margins. The ag-tech world ranges from companies that would use robotics or data science to make farming more efficient to start-ups looking to make it easier for producers to find better prices for seeds and fertilizer.
“Nearly one-quarter of 2017’s ag-tech investments were made by corporations or their venture capital arms, including those of giants Monsanto and Syngenta, up 7 percentage points from 2016 — raising a question about whether ‘big ag’ will be friend or foe to the industry’s disrupters,” said the FT. “The big ag companies are also acquiring outright, as well as investing.”