Welcome to the 52nd Edition of Upstream Ag Professional
Last week, agtech funding announcements totalled $200 million, including releases from InnerPlant, Micropep, Monarch Tractor, Pherosyn, and Agrobiomics, making it a significant week for funding. Additionally, AgFunder announced the close of their Fund IV, which raised over $100 million.
Index:
InnerPlant Raises $30 million Series B, Led by North American Farmers: Highlights and Analysis
The Insight is the Edge: Switch Bioworks
Micropep Raises $29M in Series B Funding and Unveils Krisalix, its Proprietary Discovery Platform: Highlights and Analysis
Monarch Tractor bags record $133m, eyes global expansion for its all-electric, autonomous machines
Agriculture’s Misunderstanding of Data — ‘Battling Big Ag: Safeguarding farmers from data exploitation and US farmer: ‘Theft of my data could deprive me of my competitive advantage’
AGCO to Sell Majority of Grain & Protein Business for $700 Million
54 Questions to Ask about your Biostimulant or Biopesticide
Why Syngenta is Investing in Soil Health with Matt Wallenstein
Upstream Ag LLM Research Tool
Other Interesting Ag Articles (9 this week)
1. InnerPlant Raises $30 million Series B, Led by North American Farmers: Highlights and Analysis - Upstream Ag Professional
Key Takeaways
InnerPlant announced a $30M Series B funding round. The raise is notable for being led by a consortium of North American farmers, underscoring the value placed on InnerPlant’s technology by farmers themselves.
InnerPlant's technology involves genetically engineering plants to emit signals when under stress, detectable via sensors well before visible symptoms appear. This early detection system, combined with their new CropVoice platform, aims to transform agronomic decision-making by providing real-time, actionable data to farmers and agronomists, leading to better crop management and increased farm profitability.
InnerPlant, today announces a $30M Series B funding round led by an alliance of large North American farmers headed by Coutts Agro, an operator and agricultural investor. Joining the round is Systemiq, as well as previous investors Deere & Company and Bison Ventures.
InnerPlant genetically engineers plants to emit distinct optical signals when the plants are under stress, such as when they lack nutrients or are under fungal pressure or attack from insects. The signals are detectable from via sensors, such as satellites or on tractors, and visualize stress as much as three weeks before the human eye can see, giving farmers and early warning system to proactively protect their crops.
Co-founder and CEO of InnerPlant Shely Aronov shared the following on the news:
We’re very proud that this round is being led by the people who best understand what’s needed on the farm and what innovation in agriculture actually looks like….We’ve always put farmers at the center of everything we do and this investment validates that farmer-centric culture and our technology.
It’s not common to see farmers leading a round of this magnitude.
At its most simple, the investment group is a consortium of progressive farmers identifying a technology that can help them be more profitable in their operations that want to see the technology become a tool they can access.
But it’s more sophisticated than that, too.
Matt Coutts, Chief Investment Officer of Coutts Agro leading the raise and InnerPlant board member, shared a Linkedin post highlighting the rationale for investment:
We believe InnerPlant has the last mover advantage by deriving plant stress information directly from the plant, and not a sensor based on secondary information.
Agronomy has been a lot of gut feel and guessing. InnerPlant is changing that.
Traditional sensors are a proxy for what a plant might be experiencing, or could be experiencing— InnerPlant plant sensors can qualify, and quantify, in real-time what a plant needs, or doesn’t need, ultimately aiming to drive better agronomic decisions and more profitable farms.
Matt sharing his investment logic on “why now” is an astute application of Carlotta Perez’s framework that has been emphasized in Upstream before: