Agtech - So What?

The modern fashion industry creates a ton of waste. From the field to the cutting line, to the supply chain and consumers' closets, today’s ultra-cheap “fast fashion” obsession means everyday a lot of fiber gets carted off to landfills around the world. Some amount of that fiber however– especially cotton– is not only biodegradable, it can actually be a valuable addition to soils, especially in dry climates where fibers help hold water. This fact has spurred researchers and farmers in Australia, alongside the Cotton Research Development Corporation (CRDC), to begin experimenting with turning waste fiber into a soil amendment, returning cotton to whence it came and at the same time, removing bulk from overcrowded dumps and investing in a more circular future for the industry. To explore this ongoing work, Sarah is joined this week by Sam Coulton, a third generation Queensland cotton grower and owner of Gondiwindi Cotton. For more information and resources, visit our website. The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

As the world continues to get more crowded and less climatically predictable, the risk of biosecurity issues– from pest and disease invasions to food security and environmental health concerns– is only growing. Science and technology have major roles to play in helping us prepare for possible risks, and deal with them when they arise. Today, we’re tackling these issues in one geography, Australia, in order to better understand the economic, environmental, and technological threats and opportunities that are in play related to biosecurity, and how they might be set to evolve in the future. Our guest is Sarah Britton, Founder at One Biosecurity Solutions.For more information and resources, visit our website. The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

This week, we’re breaking down the freshest announcements from the agribusiness, agtech, and global ag policy worlds to share insights and ask “so what?” Sarah is joined this week by Tenacious Ventures Managing Partner J. Matthew Pryor and Shane Thomas, author of Upstream Ag Insights.For more information and resources, visit our website. The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

The global ag sector has recently passed a turning point, with prices and future outlooks for key commodities taking a decidedly pessimistic turn. Though market volatility is nothing new for producers, it does change the profitability equation. One of the first targets for pencil-sharpening and scrutiny tends to be farm inputs– from crop protection chemistry and fertilizers, to equipment purchases and agtech investments. To get us up to speed on the state of global farm input markets, and how growers are likely thinking about planning and practice adjustments in the months and years ahead, we sat down with Sam Taylor, Farm Inputs Analyst and Executive Director for Research at Rabobank. For more information and resources, visit our website. The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

Weeds are a very expensive problem. According to one 2016 study, if weeds were left to grow unchecked in agricultural fields across just the US and Canada, the cost in lost productivity would total over $43 billion. And challenges are mounting. Though the last century has been ruled by crop protection chemistries that have kept weeds at bay– crafty wild plants have quickly adapted and the existing tools are under pressure from regulators and consumers. As farmers try to turn elsewhere, agtech is stepping into the void, expanding the weed-fighting toolkit with everything from water and heat, to lasers and robots. To understand this challenge better, and to learn more about one of the emerging tools in the market, Tenacious’ Matthew Pryor joins Liam Hescock, Founder and CEO of Azaneo, an electric weeding company (and recent add to the Tenacious portfolio), and Guy Coleman, weed researcher extraordinaire. For more information and resources, visit our website. The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

There are few areas of the ag sector that are more in need of tech solutions than tree fruits. All around the world, factors like labor shortages, an aging farm workforce, mounting regulations, and rising costs have put fresh produce growers in a bind. AgTech innovators have been hard at work on tools - especially harvesting tools - for years. But progress has been much slower than many hoped. One of the key problems from a grower perspective is the price tag– even when a robot comes along that can pick or prune, it’s too expensive for all but the biggest growers. To understand this challenge better, today we’re diving into how growers think about tech solutions that are accessible to growers of all sizes. Sam Godwin, second generation apple, pear, and cherry farmer, and current chairman of the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission.For more information and resources, visit our website. The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

This week, in a new experimental format, we’re breaking down the freshest announcements from leaders in the agribusiness, agtech, and ag production worlds to share insights and ask “so what?” Sarah is joined this week by Tenacious Ventures Managing Partner J. Matthew Pryor and Shane Thomas, author of Upstream Ag Insights. What John Deere’s announced partnership with Starlink means for farmers, ag retailers, and the future of connected agtechWhat Jigsaw Farm’s evolving status as a vanguard of climate-smart agriculture tells us about future trouble in carbon and methane emission-reducing plansHow ag software roll-ups might be evolving as agtech maturesIf you like - or don’t - this experimental format, let us know! For more information and resources, visit our website.The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

Somehow it’s December again, and another year has come and nearly gone. We've spent a lot of time reflecting on the highs and lows of a particularly unpredictable year for Tenacious Ventures, our portfolio companies, and agtech more broadly.In that spirit, we’re taking time to talk about what we've learned from a year of fundraising, advising, learning and podcasting. We’re joined today by our editor and producer, Sarah Mock, who facilitates a discussion between Tenacious General Partners Sarah Nolet and Matthew Pryor.For more information and resources, visit our website. The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

Hearing the stats about startup failure rates (70 - 90%), and how one - only one- investment drives returns for most VC funds, is one thing. Actually experiencing it, is another. In line with our learning out loud ethos, today we're talking about Nowadays, a Tenacious portfolio company that recently wound down operations. Nowadays was a manufacturing platform for whole cuts of clean label plant based meat, whose flagship product is a plant-based chicken nugget made with just a handful of simple, clean ingredients. We’re speaking with Founder and CEO Max Elder about what happened, where he is now, and what he's learned. Then, at the end of the episode, Tenacious General Partners Matthew Pryor and Sarah Nolet dig in on their takeaways and where to from here.For more information and resources, visit our website. The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

There's a persistent myth in the startup space, and in agtech especially, that the most important way that corporates can support startups is through direct investments. In our experience, this is an insanely incomplete picture. Agribusiness and agricultural production are complex and enigmatic worlds, and newcomers to the space need guidance and support from advisors, customers, and support infrastructure, just as much as they need capital, if not more. Today we’re joined by Kevin McDonald, VP of Customer and Government Relations at Guardian Ag, to hear more about Guardian’s ongoing partnership with Wilbur-Ellis; how it came about, how it’s going, and what other startups and corporates can learn from the experience. For more information and resources, visit our website. The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness is given, except for liability under statue which cannot be excluded.

2023 has been a year of both investing and fundraising for us here at Tenacious Ventures. And sitting on both sides of the table has highlighted to us just how much of the investing world is stuck in a black box. In general, we’ve found that this opacity can be a huge barrier, especially in an industry like agri-food– where venture funding hasn’t been a long-standing part of the ecosystem.  So we’ve decided to shine a little more light in the investment box by asking two of our favorite LPs– or limited partners, who invest in venture capital funds– to join us for a conversation about how their job works. Today we’re joined by Eliza Jackson from Macdoch Ventures and Sara Balawajder from Builders Initiative to discuss how their vision for building investment portfolios is evolving and how it’s been informed by their experiences beyond the agtech sector. For more information and resources, visit our website. The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

We've spent a lot of time this year talking about the future of specific sub-spaces of the food system– fertilizer, vertical farming, alternative protein, and ag retail, just to name a few. We’ve focused a lot on the existing internal trends and pressures that help us predict what might be coming next, but we’ve talked less about the factors outside of the expected, not least the way that people - from lawmakers, to organizations, to consumer groups- might be able to play a more active, and less reactive, role in shaping that future.Today we’ve asked Ian Proudfoot, Global Head of Agribusiness at KPMG, to help us explore that question, specifically as it relates to the conclusions included in KPMG’s most recent 2023 Agribusiness Agenda. For more information and resources, visit our website. The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness is given, except for liability under statue which cannot be excluded.

As 2030 looms and the climate commitments made in the last decade come into clear (and often disappointing) focus, one important lesson we’ve learned is that not all greenhouse gasses are created equal. Despite the many metrics created in the hopes of simplifying our way to climate action, CO2 is neither the most potent greenhouse gas nor, arguably, the most important priority in the short term. That position is held by methane, and a need for short term methane reductions puts the livestock and dairy sectors in the center of the action. Today we’ve asked Katie Anderson, Senior Director of Business, Food and Agriculture at the Environmental Defense Fund, to shine a light on the kinds of current efforts that are fueling these reductions. Her organization’s recently announced partnership with Danone centers on a first-of-its-kind example of a commitment that puts methane– and not generic “climate” or “carbon” work– squarely on the goal line. For more information and resources, visit our website. The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness.

Without a doubt, the global fertilizer sector sits at the center of a complex web of international industries. From energy to mining and food to agriculture, turning deep earth minerals from the far reaches of the globe into the food we eat every day is no small task, and even tiny changes can have outsized, and often unpredictable, impacts. That’s why, as we continue our thinking around what the future of fertilizer, and therefore the future of the global food system will look like, we are coming to the challenge with a systems approach. And today, we’ve invited a guest with a unique global perspective to offer some insight at the system level. We’re joined by Alzbeta Klein, CEO and Director General of The International Fertilizer Association (IFA), who offers her vision of a path towards a more resilient and responsible fertilizer sector, and what that journey could mean for everyone else. For more information and resources, visit our website. The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness is given, except for liability under statue which cannot be excluded.

Generative AI tools like ChatGPT have been making waves across the global economy, but it’s not always clear how these language creating tools can make a difference in industries like agriculture. While companies everywhere are scrambling to develop their own proprietary AI tools before they even know what they’ll use them for, many in ag are left wondering– should I be using ChatGPT too? Today we’ve asked Marc Arnusch, President of Arnusch Farms, to share his experiences using ChatGPT in farming, negotiation, and more. He’s had the opportunity to use the tool for tasks big and small, and has witnessed some exciting outcomes, and some that leave him worried. For more information and resources, visit our website. The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness is given, except for liability under statue which cannot be excluded.

Innovation in the protein space has most recently seen a lot of hype around “alternative” proteins, from high tech microbe engineering to proprietary science that makes plants into something magically similar to juicy burgers or satisfying nuggets. But innovation in protein is a much deeper field. And when it comes to actually getting products to customers, protein innovations are just as likely to happen on the production floor as the lab bench. Today, we’re talking about how protein companies are thinking about innovation. We talk to Ashli Blumenfeld and Ben Rosenthal, Co-Presidents at Standard Meat Company, a family owned meat company founded in the 1930’s. Ashli and Ben chat about how they’re future-proofing their business, from how they make decisions about products and partnerships, to how they invest in innovations that might come to define the protein space. For more information and resources, visit our website. The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness is given, except for liability under statue which cannot be excluded.

A few months ago, Matthew got the chance to represent Tenacious on a panel at the Evoke Ag Conference in Adelaide, Australia. The conversation was called “Going Global, Who's investing in Agribusiness,” and featured a group of investors who tackled some of the most pivotal questions facing the agtech investment space today; from tackling sustainability and ESG and managing through a generative AI revolution to getting to the next billion dollar exit. For more information and resources, visit our website.The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness is given, except for liability under statue which cannot be excluded.

In recent years, the vertical farming startup space has been characterized by ecstatic highs and disappointing lows. More than a billion dollars worth of funding has flowed into a relatively small number of investments, but despite this resourcing and years of runway, we’ve started to see frequent, high profile collapses. So, is there a value proposition with vertical farming? Or was it all hype, and time is running out? Today, we’re joined by Sebastien Eckersley-Maslin, Founder at Phyllome (a Tenacious Ventures portfolio company), to help us tackle these tricky questions.  For more information and resources, visit our website. The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness is given, except for liability under statue which cannot be excluded.

On the surface, the opportunity to transition on-farm energy to electricity seems limited at best. Farm jobs and farm equipment are big, and often require a level of power that electric options have historically been unable to meet. But between advances in electric vehicles and shifting dynamics in farm operations, those limitations are starting to dissolve. So we’ve started to wonder: is on-farm electrification at a tipping point? Today we’ve asked David Meyers, CEO and Founder at GridTractor, to help us explore that question. His perch at the head of an agricultural fleet electrification and charging services company gives him a unique perspective on what comes next for energy use on the farm level, and what that could mean not only for the industry, but for electrification across the economy as well. For more information and resources, visit our website. The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness is given, except for liability under statue which cannot be excluded.

When we think about the effects of climate change on the ag sector, we tend to focus on the impacts to the farm– particularly those events will have an impact on farmer livelihoods. The reality is, unpredictable weather during the growing season is only one part of the challenge. Generalized climatic uncertainty from season to season is proving to be just as crippling, and not just for farm operators, but for the whole value chain.Ag retailers, and other upstream ag businesses, are seeing their own climate-related disruptions, which often means that as farmers are working on contingency plans to adjust to unpredictable conditions, the companies they rely on are doing the same. And sometimes, these dueling alternative plans don't align.To dig into these challenges, we're returning this week to the ag retail space with another perspective, from another continent. Today we're joined by Rob Dawes of Rob Dawes Consulting, who’s career has given him unique insight to both the farmer and the retailer perspective.For more information and resources, visit our website. The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness is given, except for liability under statue which cannot be excluded.