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AgFunderNews

AgFunderNews reports on the evolution of the global food and agriculture system. By going beyond the headlines, we analyze the people, companies and technologies aiming to improve human and planetary health. Publishing daily, our team of award-winning journalists delivers deeper insight on the growing foodtech, agtech and climate tech industries. A multimedia publication, AgFunderNews is a division of AgFunder, one of the world’s most active agrifoodtech venture capital firms.

Fruit-harvesting robots from Dogtooth
Featured Post

Ag biologicals' next big challenge, regen ambitions outpace realities, building self-reliant systems in Africa

Express interest in investing in Fund V. AgFunder is a top 100 VC, according to TIME and Statista. Is your business ready for AI analytics? Find out more here. This week: Despite steady growth over the last year, there's still a whole lotta work to do educating farmers and investors on biological inputs, according to Dr. Pam Marrone at the recent Salinas Biological Summit in California. Elsewhere, agrifood corporates have no lack of ambition around regenerative agriculture. Now they need the...

Express interest in investing in Fund V. AgFunder is a top 100 VC, according to TIME and Statista. Is your business ready for AI analytics? Find out more here. This week: Elaine caught up with ZBiotics founder Zack Abbott on the latest in GM probiotics and Jenn spoke to Stenon as the firm secured $20.5m to measure plant-available nitrogen directly in the field. Elsewhere, farmers, startups, and others weighed in on the good, bad, and "hollow" aspects of the newly signed executive order to...

Express interest in investing in Fund V. AgFunder is a top 100 VC, according to TIME and Statista. Is your business ready for AI analytics? Find out more here. This week: It’s fair to say that cultivated meat is now well past its honeymoon period after a string of high-profile failures. But is there light at the end of the tunnel, or is one of agrifoodtech’s biggest moonshots destined for the dustbin of history before it’s even out of the starting blocks? Elsewhere, Liberation Bioindustries...

Faraday Earth cofounders. Image credit: Faraday Earth

Express interest in investing in Fund V. AgFunder is a top 100 VC, according to TIME and Statista. Is your business ready for AI analytics? Find out more here. This week: Green ammonia startup Faraday Earth reckons its system could put it within striking distance of fossil fuel-derived gray ammonia, the backbone of most nitrogen-based fertilizers. Elsewhere, mixed fortunes in the whole cut alt meat space: French startup SWAP Food called it quits but Israel's Chunk Foods is eyeing...

Express interest in investing in Fund V. AgFunder is a top 100 VC, according to TIME and Statista. Is your business ready for AI analytics? Find out more here. This week: UPSIDE Foods has submitted a $50 million stalking horse bid for the US assets of distressed cultivated meat firm Believer Meats. Elsewhere, as weather shocks and geopolitical instability threaten ag supply chains, growing high-value botanicals indoors in bioreactors has obvious appeal. But does plant cell culture—which is...

James Rogers, PhD, cofounder, Apeel Sciences

Express interest in investing in Fund V. AgFunder is a top 100 VC, according to TIME and Statista. Is your business ready for AI analytics? Find out more here. A high-profile startup making plant-based coatings to extend the shelf-life of fresh produce, Apeel was “an American success story until MAHA influencers sank it,” according to a recent headline in The Free Press. A brief look at the timeline suggests things are a little more complicated. However, three years spent battling social...

Kathy Fortmann, CEO, Amyris

Express interest in investing in Fund V. AgFunder is a top 100 VC, according to TIME and Statista. Is your business ready for AI analytics? Find out more here. Two years after emerging from bankruptcy, biomanufacturing specialist Amyris is not yet profitable, but is a “drastically different company," says CEO Kathy Fortmann. Elsewhere, California-based Windfall Bio—a startup with tech to convert waste methane from farms and landfill sites into organic fertilizer—has ceased operations and is...

Triple Bio founder Peter Rowe

Express interest in investing in Fund V. AgFunder is a top 100 VC, according to TIME and Statista. Is your business ready for AI analytics? Find out more here. This week: From MAHA’s glyphosate tug-of-war with Trump to patent cliffs to rising fertilizer costs, the cracks in the use of traditional crop inputs are starting to resemble fault lines, says Jenn. And mainstream investors are now paying attention, notably Y Combinator CEO Gary Tan. Elsewhere, could novel lipid-based tech unlock a new...

The Ruby Bio team

Express interest in investing in Fund V. AgFunder is a top 100 VC, according to TIME and Statista. Is your business ready for AI analytics? Find out more here. This week: S2G Investments raised a $1bn growth-stage fund and vertical farming company Oishii announced the first close of its $150m Series C round. Elsewhere, Ruby Bio is riding the MAHA wave with an industry first: a suite of clean-label emulsifiers derived from fermentation, with unit economics that can compete at scale with a...

The Ruby Bio team

Express interest in investing in Fund V. AgFunder is a top 100 VC, according to TIME and Statista. Is your business ready for AI analytics? Find out more here. This week: S2G Investments raised a $1bn growth-stage fund and vertical farming company Oishii announced the first close of its $150m Series C round. Elsewhere, Ruby Bio is riding the MAHA wave with an industry first: a suite of clean-label emulsifiers derived from fermentation, with unit economics that can compete at scale with a...