Welcome to the 170th Edition of Upstream Ag Insights!
A lot was going on in the world of agriculture this week. Unfortunately, I was away this week, so I didn’t prioritize the time to dig into every significant event in the detail I would have liked. I will do my best to follow up on the most relevant stories next week.
Next week’s edition will feature the Q1 2023 Agribusiness Results Highlights and Analysis.
Lastly, Happy Memorial Day Long Weekend to all American readers!
Index for the week:
Anuvia Plant Nutrients Terminates Staff and to Liquidate Assets
Brazil’s Seedz to expand agribusiness platform to North America to bring more farmers online
UPL Partners with Biome Makers
Grain Trader Viterra in Talks to Merge with Rival Bunge
Yara AgTech: Deepening AgTech Capabilities
Who Has the Most Credibility with Growers on Your Precision Team?
CNH Industrial and ONE SMART SPRAY announce the integration of a precision spraying solution
Pluton Biosciences Raises $16.5M Series A led by Illumina Ventures
The Role of SOLIX Plarform in Agriculture Decision Making
Talent in Ag Follow up
FMC 2022 Annual Report Highlights and Analysis
Vicious Traps
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1. Anuvia Plant Nutrients Terminates Staff and to Liquidate Assets - Hugh MacGillivary Linkedin (Anuvia CCO)
I write to inform my network that Anuvia Plant Nutrients has taken a decision to suspend operations and liquidate their assets. The company has terminated all its employees other than a select few to wind down the operation.
Anuvia™ was a fertilizer company manufacturing their own proprietary SymTRX fertilizer products (14-24-0-10S or 17-1-0-20S), including technology to increase nutrient efficiency, including biomaterial.
Anuvia raised over $307 million, most recently announcing a Series D raise of $65.5 million in April of 2022.
They had partnerships with leading organizations such as Mosaic and Novozymes.
They hold some incredibly compelling patents in the input space (in my opinion, including for the delivery of bioactive molecules in coatings or surface layers of organically enhanced inorganic fertilizers,
In 2021 they had products on over 500,000 acres.
They had tailwinds behind their business, including the trend towards de-commoditizing each ton of fertilizer and leveraging bio-based material to enhance nutrient use efficiency.
Their products plugged into an already established system for farmers, not changing the demands on a farmer’s time or significantly changing the cost to operate.
If you read the above, it isn’t a stretch to imagine that Anuvia could be one of the more successful companies that have raised venture capital in agriculture.
Instead, they are the most recent agtech organization to succumb to a challenging capital environment and a complex market landscape. Being a non-digital company reinforces just how hard it is to grow a new ag business of any kind.
In December, their long-time CEO Amy Yoder left the company, which is never optimal.
I suspect the answer to why this happened is incredibly nuanced, and I prefer not to speculate on the specifics. With that said, at a macro level, it is a reinforcement of three things: