Finistere Ventures and PitchBook Close Gap in Agtech Funding Data

PALO ALTO, CA — August 7, 2018 — Agtech venture pioneer Finistere Ventures today released its “2018 Early-Stage Agtech Report,” which provides new insight into global early stage financing activity and trends in leading agtech innovation geographies.

Developed in partnership with PitchBook, the report is the first in a two-part series looking at early agtech funding in specific regions around the globe. This report spotlights Australia/New Zealand, Canada and Israel; the next report will focus on the European Union and South America.

The “2018 Early-Stage Agtech Report” includes:

• A look at the evolution of the agtech market by exploring angel and seed deal flow by type from 2013 through early 2018;
• In-depth analyses of agtech angel deal flow and seed deal flow from 2010 through early 2018;
• An examination of early stage financing in core agtech categories, including agriculture marketplace/fintech, animal technologies, crop protection/input management, imagery, indoor agriculture, plant science, precision agriculture and sensors/farm equipment;
• An exploration of the growing focus on seed funding in agtech and the reasons behind it;
• An overview of global agtech trends and opportunities from prominent seed investors;
• Results from a survey of seed-focused agtech funds around the globe; and
• Deep dives into important regional variations, challenges, investment trends and predictions.

Co-founding Farm 2050 with Innovation Endeavors, Finistere Ventures is committed to bringing together leaders in the agtech ecosystem to accelerate world food production through technological innovation around the globe. When Finistere partnered with PitchBook in 2017 to curate a first-of-its-kind investor dataset with clear insights into financing activity and metrics in the agtech sector – the “AgTech Investment Review” – the team discovered that there was a lack of insight into seed-stage investment and a bias toward U.S. financing data. For this report, Finistere tapped its global network of partners; AgThentic, the Angel Association of New Zealand, Radicle Growth, Sprout and Start-up Nation Central contributed extensive data and insights.

Key report findings:

• Activity at the angel and seed stages has risen over the past three years – hitting $123.8 million worth of financing in 2017 – and experts expect record activity levels in 2018.
• While angel deal value was significantly down from its record year in 2016, seed-stage investment hit a record high last year with $89.5 million.
• Angel deal flow saw a sixfold increase between 2010 and 2016, while seed activity saw a fivefold increased between 2013 and 2017.
• Seed-focused agtech respondents overwhelmingly cited $2-$5 million (83%) as the average seed-stage valuation range.
• While respondents called out precision agriculture (24%) and sensors/farm equipment (19%) as the segments with the most deal flow; animal technologies and aquaculture were noted as other areas of potential interest, along with supply chain analytics and infrastructure.

“The agtech market is maturing, and more innovation and money is pouring into the sector as entrepreneurs and investors start to understand what it takes to build a successful agtech company,” said Arama Kukutai, co-founder and partner at Finistere Ventures. “However, agtech is much more heavily influenced by the angel and seed stages than other investment sectors, so it is absolutely critical that we have a clear picture of what is happening in early financing stages around the globe. It is also clear that global innovation is key to the progress and investment growth in this sector and that seed investment is becoming more professionalized.”

Download the complete report here to explore the findings in more detail, review the research methodology and learn more about the taxonomy the team used to classify agtech innovations. As data on the earliest funding stages are notoriously difficult to collect, please contact survey@pitchbook.com to contribute additional data for future reports.

About Finistere Ventures
Finistere Ventures is a leading global agricultural technology and life sciences venture capital investor with offices in Palo Alto, San Diego, Ireland and Israel. Its team has developed and invested in some of the most successful agtech companies of the last 20 years—building and backing companies worth more than $5 billion.

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Media Contact:
Erica Camilo
Connexa Communications for Finistere Ventures
C: 610.639.5644
Erica@connexacommunications.com