Agtech - So What?

The science and technology of soil is rapidly evolving, but translating it into a scalable business that can offer viable products to farmers has long been a tricky proposition. But it’s one that Adam Litle, the CEO of Sound Agriculture, has devoted much of his career to answering. Adam was part of the executive team at Granular, the farm management software company acquired by Dupont (now Corteva) for $300M. Now, at Sound Ag, he’s leading a company that’s raised more than $95M to develop a product which activates microbes in soil to increase the uptake of nitrogen and phosphorus, thereby enabling farmers to use less fertilizer. In this episode Adam shares his insights on:

• Striking a balance between scientific rigor, technological innovation, and investor returns
• Why the SaaS business model is challenging in agriculture
• How to build trust in a startup team of scientists and industry people, while bringing in commercial experience.
• Why soil innovations are receiving an increase in attention as farmers continue to grapple with the rising costs of fertilizer.

For more information, visit our website.

Originally released: 20 February, 2020 We’ll be back with new episodes in January 2022, but for the holidays we thought we’d bring back a favorite episode from the vault! Mark Ferguson or “Ferg,” is a sheep geneticist who’s paying attention to how both consumer demands and emerging technologies are impacting growers. He’s the co-founder and Director of neXtgen Agri, an online livestock consultancy, and Genesmith, a startup applying facial recognition and machine learning to the global livestock industry. Drawing on his experience with dozens of clients around Australia and New Zealand, Ferg shares his insights on:

• How to build relationships in a digital world.
• What the future of extension and consulting in livestock holds.
• The role of cutting edge technologies in the sheep industry (facial recognition for sheep!)
• His vision for a future where consumer expectations are met and growers are profitable.

For more episodes, visit our website. Catch you in 2022!

It’s fair to say most entrepreneurs (and farmers!) aren’t big fans of government rules and regulations for fear of being slowed down by red tape and bureaucracy. However, the political environment in which a startup develops can have a big impact on its ability to find investment and support, especially in agtech, where ecosystems are still very new for most countries. The United Arab Emirates is investing heavily in agtech, seeking to make Abu Dhabi the global center for innovation in agriculture. Their focus is on vertical farming, aquaculture, and hydroponics. And they’re working to be strategic in attracting investment and solving for food security, while also developing a knowledge economy. Salvatore Lavallo is the Head of Foreign Direct Investment at the Abu Dhabi Investment Office. He’s had a unique, and perhaps unlikely journey, to this position. Growing up in Indiana, his interest in economic development led him to become, at the age of 27, one of the youngest people to travel to every country in the world. Along the way, he became a farm owner in Tanzania, and later, a consultant with McKinsey in Africa and the Middle East. In this episode, Salvatore discusses:

• Challenging conventional economic indicators to understand what actually benefits local communities
• Abu Dhabi’s bold plan to create Food Tech Valley, a hub for agtech innovation in desert environments.
• The tension between too much government regulation and too little

For more information and resources from this episode, visit our website

Where are all the women founders in agtech, especially at later-stage startups? What does an acquisition really feel like, and when does it make sense? In this Bonus episode, we answer both these questions, as well as build on the key insights from our latest series: “Later-Stage Agtech Startup Lessons”. This episode features:

• Anastasia Volkova - co-founder and CEO of Regrow*, an independent measurement reporting and verification platform. Regrow, (formerly Flurosat), recently acquired US agtech company, Dagan, and raised $17 million in Series A funding.
• Matthew Pryor - co-founder of Tenacious Ventures, and partner at the Agthentic Group. He previously co-founded Observant, a precision ag water management company, which was acquired by Jain Irrigation.

Our guests also examine some of the key lessons from the entrepreneurs featured in this series: Michael Gilbert of Semios, Paul Lightfoot of BrightFarms and Charles Baron of Farmers Business Network. For more information visit our website. *Disclaimer: Tenacious Ventures is an investor in Regrow.

Farmers Business Network is one of the most well-funded startups in agtech. Just recently, they announced a $300M Series G round, bringing their total funds raised to $870M and their valuation to nearly $4 billion. So, where did it all begin? In this episode, FBN co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer, Charles Baron, explains how his Silicon Valley upbringing unexpectedly collided with rural Nebraska, resulting in an idea for a new kind of agribusiness- one that would connect farmers and increase their bargaining power for chemicals and seeds. In the eight years since the startup began, FBN has frequently encountered opposition from incumbents due to its push for competition and transparency for input pricing. In this episode, the last in our three-part series, Charles talks about several key factors in the company’s success, including:

• Questioning Silicon Valley’s ‘founder obsession’ to instead create a ‘farmer-centric’ ideology
• The importance of telling your company’s story through your own channels (rather than relying on others).
• How FBN makes decisions about which strategies to pursue, including their Gradable platform and recently announced partnership with ADM

This is the third episode in our “Later-Stage Agtech Startup Lessons” series. Listen to episode 1) Michael Gilbert of Semios and episode 2) Paul Lightfoot of BrightFarms. For more resources visit our website.

“When you say, ‘can I have your money?’ Then, people speak the truth.” Paul Lightfoot is a serial entrepreneur who has learned several lessons the hard way, from raising money to communicating purpose to hiring (and firing). After spending much of his career as a software CEO, Paul wanted to follow his “calling” to enter the world of sustainability and foodtech. But this meant moving from a familiar career trajectory to an industry that, 10 years ago when Paul was entering it, barely even existed. In 2011, Paul founded BrightFarms, which uses hydroponic greenhouses to produce locally sourced packaged salads in the US. Along the way, he has made several critical decisions for his startup’s success. This includes an incredibly rare and difficult decision for any founder to make- Paul voluntarily stepped back from the role of CEO and hired someone he believed could do a better job. Now, BrightFarms has 300 employees, five greenhouses, and in 2021, it was acquired by Cox Enterprises. In this episode, Paul talks about:

• How to distinguish between what your ego is telling you and what’s best for your company.
• How he raised capital in the early days, as well as more recent strategic partnerships to support the growth of BrightFarms.
• Why establishing core values and purpose is not simply human resources ‘fluff’, but rather integral to success throughout every phase of a startup.

For more information on this episode, visit our website. This is the second episode in our “Later-Stage Agtech Startup Lessons” series. Listen to the first episode with Michael Gilbert of Semios.

In this 3-part series, we’ll share the lessons from agtech startup founders who have grown their agtech companies from idea to at least 100 employees. We’ll be examining what’s worked (and hasn’t), differences between agtech and other industries, and what the founders have learned along the way about the industry and themselves. This episode, the first in the series, features Michael Gilbert, CEO and founder of Semios, a crop management platform initially focused on tree fruit, nuts and vines, based in Canada. Michael has a PhD in chemistry and started his career in pharmaceuticals and biotech, before realizing his knowledge could be applied to agricultural inputs. This initial idea has led him on a journey from biologicals, to creating a company with more than 300 employees and over $225 million in external capital raised to date. Michael discusses:

• The importance of iterating your idea, technology, and business based on customer input
• Hiring tips and challenges as you expand from needing generalists to specialists
• How to create a culture that rewards failure (and why this is hard in an agricultural context)

For more information and links to the resources mentioned in this podcast, visit our website.

Venture investment into technology companies that have the potential to scale regenerative agriculture is accelerating. However, it is a relatively new domain for venture capital, and it comes with its own unique set of challenges. So what role can VCs play in the regen ag landscape? And what technologies and trends are VCs looking at to guide their investments? This bonus episode features a discussion from a live panel conversation at the Regenerative Food Systems Investment Forum (RFSIF), in California, with:

• Renee Vassilos - Director of Agriculture Innovation at The Nature Conservancy.
• Mark Lewis - Managing Partner at Trailhead Capital, and owner at Lewis Family Farm.
• Sarah Nolet - co-founder of Tenacious Ventures and the Agthentic Group.
• Paul Lightfoot (moderator), President of BrightFarms and author, Negative Foods Newsletter

Thank you to RFSI for the recording- this episode is a lightly edited version of the live event. For more information and resources from this episode visit our website. You might also like to catch up on our regen ag series.

Does the average citizen actually need to care about how their food is produced? This is the central question Australian author and journalist, Gabrielle Chan, set out to answer. Her latest book, “Why you should give a f*ck about farming” details her firm conclusion that, yes, if you eat food, you should in fact care about agriculture. While the old days of agriculture as the top contributor to GDP are over for most Western countries, Gabrielle argues the future of food and farming is becoming increasingly important for a raft of other reasons such as climate change and food security. In this episode, she talks about:

• Her own introduction to farming, including what shocked her when she first moved from the city to marry a farmer.
• The emergence of ‘food tribes’, where people view what they eat as part of their identity.
• How politics is failing agriculture by not having a “backyard plan,” a strategy to value natural capital and make considered decisions about land use.
• The role of agtech in bringing outsiders into agriculture, reinvigorating rural communities, and re-establishing connections between consumers and farmers.

For more information and resources, visit our website

The divide between farmers and startups can seem like a chasm. Tech culture and agriculture have evolved from completely different backgrounds, and even seem to have their own languages. So how can agtech bring together two very different groups? In this episode, you’ll hear practical tips from farmers and agtech experts on how to build mutually beneficial relationships. For startups, this includes approaching farmers as partners, rather than ‘customers,’ and understanding ‘grower economics’. And for farmers, it’s about finding opportunities to access and help shape new products as the startup iterates. This might look like an equity partnership, an advisory relationship, or even becoming a co-founder. On the panel:

• Walt Duflock - Vice President of Innovation, Western Growers
• Emma Weston - CEO & Co-Founder, AgriDigital
• Pete Nelson - President & Executive Director, AgLaunch

This episode is an edited version of an AusAgritech Meetup, sponsored by Foodbytes! by Rabobank. For more information and resources, visit our website.