Agriculture & Food

Agtech, Insect Farming and the Future of Efficiency: An Interview with Ÿnsect’s Co-Founder

Chris Sworder
Posted on by Chris Sworder
Today, the main goal of insect farming is to develop a product to replace fishmeal as an ingredient in fish feed. Fishmeal currently has a global production of three to four million tons and was worth $6.3 billion in 2017. Eventually, insect farmers want to compete in the pet food ($91 billion) and even animal feed ($400 billion) markets. Business specifics Rather than building, owning and operating each insect farm, a licencing model is possible. Insect farming is highly automated... Read More »

Standout Fundraising Achievement of the Year 2019 awarded to Agtech company

Chris Sworder
Posted on by Chris Sworder
Ÿnsect, a company that breeds insects for feed and non-food applications was awarded the Fundraising Achievement of the Year 2019 for Europe and Israel. Co-Founder, Alexis Angot, was at the recent Cleantech Forum Europe in Stockholm to collect the award following the impressive $125 million Series C the company announced in February, raised from investors including Astanor Ventures, Demeter, Quadia, Talis Capital, Idinvest Partners, Credit Agricole Brie Picardie, Caisse d'Epargne, Picardie Investissement, Finasucre, Compagnie du Bois Sauvage, Happiness Capital, VisVires... Read More »

Are Indoor Agriculture and Vertical Farming Growing up?

Chris Sworder
Posted on by Chris Sworder
Urban agriculture and vertical farming, are they viable? There are question marks on efficiency, availability of useful and reasonably priced real estate, and demand for the leafy greens and herbs that are most often the crop of choice. That said, there are several high-profile companies in the U.S. that have been around for several years, e.g. AeroFarms, Plenty, and Bowery, which have raised at total of  over $400M. Alongside these farm developers, we are seeing more indoor agriculture-specific technology (see iUNU’s... Read More »

Food News: Motif Ingredients – Microbes to Meat, the Race is on…

Chris Sworder
Posted on by Chris Sworder
The news about Ginkgo Bioworks spinning out Motif Ingredients signals an acceleration in the race to create an alternative meat. Plant-based meat has opened the door to consumer acceptance. Now the challenges are overcoming production bottlenecks and improving the taste, feel and versatility of the products. With $90 million of fresh capital, an impressive set of investors and a pedigree from Ginkgo Bioworks, the race is on. Spotlight on burgers Plant-based burgers are making the news, with the latest offerings including the UAE-based... Read More »

This Deal Matters: Evogene files for IPO

Amanda Faulkner
Posted on by Amanda Faulkner
 Evogene, an Israeli developer of biotechnologies geared toward developing improved plants for agriculture and biofuel industries through use of plant genomics, filed for an IPO on the NYSE on November 11. The company plans to raised $86 million and would have a market value of $412 million at the midpoint of its proposed range. Evogene has established collaborative relationships with Monsanto, DuPont, Syngenta, and Bayer CropScience, showing real traction with the top players in the industry. While the public markets... Read More »