Partner Arama Kukutai Interviewed on Growth of Agtech Investing
In its recent edition, Digital Journal interviewed Arama Kutai on the growth of Agtech investing. From the article:
DJ: Who are leading agtech companies?
Kukutai: Ultimately we believe in data-driven value creation for farmers and supply chain partners. There are a host of “awards” promoting companies as leaders or winners in the space which are largely subjective or worse hype driven – but ultimately we think the best companies can actually show data and proof in the field or value chain that is compelling, and also key to adopting these technologies.Finistere is looking at field data for examples like: How effective are these results vs the control? We appointed Mike Pereira as Chief Agronomist – the first VC fund to do so – because companies we invest in that are in the field need to show actual results that stand up scientifically and practically. Companies like High Fidelity, Biolumic, Zeakal, CropX and Growers Edge are all engaged in rigorous trialing and prove out of their tech with farmers and partners and are scaling on acres globally.
Another area we are particularly bullish about is the application of Fintech solutions to Ag markets. Growers Edge is the pioneer in this sector, with 50,000 farmers on its platform offering insurance, lending and agronomy advice as well as integrating technology solutions wrapped with a warranty to provide farmers with protection/assurance on the use of new technologies on farm. We expect to see a lot of capital flow to this new niche.