S2G Ventures is a food and agriculture venture fund that invests in entrepreneurs whose products and services meet the shifting demands for healthy and sustainable food. The firm's mission is to catalyze innovation to meet consumer demands for healthy, sustainable, and local food. S2G will identify sectors across the food system that are ripe for change, and form a multi-stage portfolio including seed, venture, and growth-stage investments. It seeks to invest in agriculture, ingredients, infrastructure and logistics, food safety and technology, retail and restaurants, and consumer brands. S2G Ventures was established in 2014 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

S2G Ventures

Middleland Capital is a private investment firm focused on global early-stage technology opportunities. Leveraging a unique breadth of geographic and industry experience, the firm seeks partnerships with exceptional management teams to commercialize innovative technologies, accelerate growth, and build long-term value around the world.

Middleland Capital

Continental Grain Company is dedicated to working with its existing agricultural businesses pursuing strategic opportunities in protein-based businesses while taking advantage of new investment opportunities. Established in 1813 as a grain trading firm based in what is now known as Arlon, Belgium, Continental Grain Company grew to become one of the largest privately held companies in the world. Through its diversified operations and investment activities, Continental Grain Company builds long-term value in partnership with exceptional management teams. The Company's goal is to attain financial success in ways that reflect favorably upon its employees and business partners. With a rich entrepreneurial legacy and significant permanent capital, Continental Grain Company continues to seek new global growth opportunities across the food and agriculture landscape through its various investment groups, including CGC Ventures, Corporate Investments, and its middle market investment group, Arlon.

Continental Grain Company

AgFunder invests in impactful companies that can positively transform the world's food system. Founded in 2013, AgFunder manages a portfolio of over 50 companies across four funds from offices in Silicon Valley and Singapore. Through its media platform AFN, it has built a global ecosystem of over 90,000 subscribers.

AgFunder

The Caisse is a global fund manager. Its clients, which it calls its depositors, are mostly Québec public and private pension funds and insurance plans. The funds entrusted to the Caisse are invested in financial markets in Québec, in Canada and around the world to generate a profit.

Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec

From spiraling healthcare costs, to the rise of chronic diseases, to feeding a growing global population, the world is facing a complex web of interrelated challenges. iSelect was created to help solve these problems, connecting investors with the innovative companies that are fixing the food and health systems while opening up access to investment opportunities that are making a real impact on the future of our world.

iSelect Fund

KuE Capital is a specialized investment management firm based in Mexico City. KuE is a platform that seeks to source and analyze investment alternatives across different asset classes including equity, fixed income, and alternative strategies such as hedge funds, private equity and direct investments. They follow a value investing philosophy and are guided by the endowment model, pioneered by University endowments in the U.S.   Their goal is to preserve wealth over time with a long term horizon and their most valuable asset is their dedicated investment team.

KuE Capital

Akroyd LLC

Sentera

Sentera provides decision support and insights to growers, advisors, and enterprise customers.  Our products use machine learning, modeling, and data sciences tools to gather data, organize it, and quickly turn it into insights that improve outcomes for growers, advisors, and retailers.  We deliver the best insights from high-resolution drone imagery, satellites, field equipment, and other sensors, and combine it with advanced modeling and analytics tools at scale.

Sentera is a provider of agriculture drones and sensors to capture deep analytics. Sentera leverages a comprehensive data capture, analytics, and modeling suite by combining aerial data collection with agronomic machine-learning engines to deliver plant-level measurements and insights. Insights range from plant-level tracking and modeling to regional estimates of yield, nutrient uptake, and other EkobotEkobotattributes of crop quality. As of September 2023, the company serves customers in more than 45 countries.

Sustainably solving the food shortages of the future

Smart Farming

Sentera Announces Collaboration with Leading Agribusiness Companies to Preview Transformative Weed Management Technologies for Farmers

Anheuser-Busch InBev

Sentera will deliver technology for AB InBev’s SmartBarley platform which helps growers improve their productivity and secure the supply chain of the future

Start-ups offering software and related hardware solutions for crop operation, crop modelling, weather forecasting, soil analysis, and overall irrigation management using sensors, big data, AI and machine learning.

Bayer

Customers who use Climate FieldView now have access to seamless integration of Sentera FieldAgent on-field sensor and analytics products through FieldView, as well as automatic synchronization of field boundary and other user information between platforms.

Sentera is a provider of agriculture drones and sensors to capture deep analytics. Sentera leverages a comprehensive data capture, analytics, and modeling suite by combining aerial data collection with agronomic machine-learning engines to deliver plant-level measurements and insights. Insights range from plant-level tracking and modeling to regional estimates of yield, nutrient uptake, and other EkobotEkobotattributes of crop quality. As of September 2023, the company serves customers in more than 45 countries.In September 2023, Sentera launched its <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/21725">Aerial WeedScout technology</a>, a precision weed control solution that claims to reduce post-emergent herbicide application by up to 70%. The equipment moves through fields at normal operating speeds, and the up-front cost is said to be a fraction of that of on-machine solutions. Its advanced high-resolution imaging and deep-learning technologies enable users to detect weeds earlier and with greater accuracy than competing technologies. The company’s precision weed maps also generate targeted herbicide prescriptions for precise weed control. Following technology validation, the company will commercialize the technology after identifying a marketing partner.&nbsp; In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/31109">June 2024</a>, Sentera has also initiated an early access program for Aerial WeedScout, an advanced AI-powered drone that allows smarter use of herbicides. It is expected to be released commercially in 2025.Key customers and partnershipsIn <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/29623">May 2024</a>, has partnered with UAV solution provider Drone Nerds to integrate the Sentera PHX drone and its sensors into Drone Nerds' product portfolio. In <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20231019289552/en/Eiwa-Sentera-Announce-Commercial-Collaboration-Distribution-Agreement-Technology-to-Support-Seed-Production-Crop-Protection-Crop-Nutrition-Customers-With-Cloud-Data-Management-and-Analytics.">October 2023</a>, The company has also collaborated on a distribution agreement with EIWA, an AgTech company that is focused on digital transformation of agricultural industry, to help the customers to gather avareity of measurements during the season quickly and efficiently.&nbsp;Funding and financialsIn May 2023, the company expanded its <a href="https://agfundernews.com/sentera-closes-25m-series-c-round-to-scale-its-digital-ag-platform">previously</a> oversubscribed <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/18164">Series C funding</a> round, led by Conti Ventures and S2G Ventures.&nbsp;

Israeli startup Taranis, focuses on providing a complete digital agronomy solution to farmers using aerial imagery technology across the US, Argentina, Brazil, Russia, Ukraine, and Australia. The company now monitors more than 20 million acres globally, 50% of which is located within the US.&nbsp;The startup captures aerial images using UAVs, which can be analyzed and compared using its own platform, and allows farmers to make precise decisions about planting. The company also operates an area called the “AgroBrain”, which allows precise identification of crop issues. The company claims to account for 70% of the global crop market and equips farmers with the tools to address issues in real time. Similar to peers like Ceres Imaging, Taranis has partnered with incumbent players like John Deere, Syngenta, BASF, and Climate Field View to expand its product reach. As such, Taranis is regarded as a promising startup in global precision agriculture.&nbsp;In 2018, the company expanded its footprint in the US when it acquired Mavrx, a US startup providing aerial imagery solutions to local farmers. Mavrx ran into financial difficulties and consolidation of the two companies yielded attractive opportunities. The consolidation allowed Taranis to integrate Mavrx’s product (full field imagery product with highest resolution on the market) into its platform, thereby fulfilling Taranis’ aim of providing a complete solution. The acquisition strengthened Taranis' offering rather than differentiating it. Taranis believes that further consolidation is likely with imagery and AI solutions.&nbsp;In July 2020, amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, the company raised USD 30 million in Series C funding. Key Investors included Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Micron Ventures, and Vertex Ventures Israel. The company expects to use the funds to create more relevant scouting products for growers through its platform and to also look towards expanding into Asia.&nbsp;Previously in January 2023, Taranis introduced <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/taranis-introduces-acreforward-setting-a-new-standard-for-crop-intelligence-301734306.html">AcreForward</a> which provides unprecedented leaf-level insights into growers' crops at higher frequency throughout the season and captures opportunities in every acre to help ag retailers drive more value from every acre. In <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/taranis-launches-ag-assistant-to-transform-farm-decision-making-302198624.html">July 2024</a>, The company has introduced Ag assistant, powered by a generative AI model that integrates data sources from various modalities – including images, text and audio – and with a profound understanding of agronomy.

Taranis

Based in Canada, TELUS Agriculture offers integrated agriculture software solutions to increase profits of farmers and ranchers, agri-businesses, and agri-food, consumer goods and retail companies. Some of the farm management software solutions provided by the company are: Farm at Hand (crop management platform), TKXS (data management), Agrian (precision and informed decision making)&nbsp; and Muddy Boots (food traceability and supply chain management). As of July 2021, TELUS provides its solutions across Canada, the USA, Mexico, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Slovakia, Armenia, Germany, China, and Australia.In July 2021, TELUS along with Rabobank, a Dutch food and agriculture bank, acquired Conservis to deliver a more robust Conservis platform to cater a diverse range of crops and livestock leveraging the former’s know-how and relationships across the food industry value chain and the latter’s portfolio of innovative digital farming technologies and solutions.&nbsp;Founded in 2009, Conservis via its web and mobile platform, provides farmers with planning tools, real-time data capture, and analytics to support better decision making and efficient reporting. Having launched as a permanent crop management platform for tree nuts, the platform has expanded its capabilities to fit crop types such as citrus and grapes.&nbsp; Since 2018, Rabo AgriFinance, a Rabobank subsidiary, has also been a development partner for Conservis to enhance the platform’s financial reporting capabilities.&nbsp;In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/27853">March 2024</a>, The company&nbsp; has completed the acquisition of Proagrica, a provider of agronomic and business data solutions.Key customers and partnershipsIn <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/decisive-farming-telus-agriculture-grainfox-140000751.html">October 2023</a>, The company has partnered with GrainFox announced a new partnership to bring more digital grain trade and sell options to Canadian farmers, providing technology-based solutions to support the ongoing transformation of Canada’s agriculture industry.

TELUS  Agriculture

Arable was established with the aim of providing measurements, insight, and predictions that enable growers to address risks with crop management. The key market of focus has been the US, though the company’s product has been used in 39 different countries.The company provides real-time data updates on irrigation and weather, such as reports on plants and crop management, to allow users to make informed decisions, while also being able to precisely measure different farming-related data such as temperature and humidity. Thus, the company falls under the categories of precision and smart farming.The company’s product, Arable Mark, is an irrigation management tool whichsynthesizes climate, plant, and soil data to produce visualizations. Through a web dashboard and smartphone app, Arable Mark exposes precipitation, crop water deficit, soil moisture, chilling hours, and other metrics gathered from sensors. Customers using Arable’s platform have reportedly shown to reduce irrigation by upto 50% and pesticide usage by 15%. In May 2023, the company commercially introduced <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/18120">Arable Mark 3 </a>which includes a 5 MP camera, an optional wind anemometer, and advanced plant and environmental sensing capabilities.The company’s customer base is quite broad in the agriculture value chain, and includes farmers, advisors, insurers, processors, lenders, and governments that find Arable useful to gauge facts on the ground in real time, and in turn reduce risk and increase certainty with decision making.Key customers and partnershipsAs of July 2022, the company serves over 400 customers across 40 countries, and has partnered with agribusiness players like <a href="https://www.bayer.com/en/">Bayer </a>, <a href="http://basf.com/">BASF </a>, and <a href="https://www.nutrien.com/">Nutrien </a>, as well as large consumer food companies such as <a href="https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa=L&amp;ai=DChcSEwjZmt7Vz8HsAhVB5bMKHZDRA-QYABAAGgJxbg&amp;ohost=www.google.com&amp;cid=CAESQOD2vDo-TeLvYzetoyv9iGSw4AnEyiwfscK9vNdjRJ0JPSZXAOBHMYcmrQDPGFTkEl8yzB3t5tB0WHRWzqyKtJE&amp;sig=AOD64_30Xpx6__U8VgKUxkOFpPHuSo99bw&amp;q&amp;adurl&amp;ved=2ahUKEwj--M3Vz8HsAhVCLKwKHa4MAgUQ0Qx6BAgUEAE">Mars </a>, <a href="https://www.lambweston.com/">Lamb Weston </a>, and <a href="https://www.tweglobal.com/">Treasury Wine Estates </a>, as well as fellow startups like <a href="https://www.planet.com/">Planet </a>, <a href="https://www.terramera.com/">Terramera </a>, and <a href="https://www.pivotbio.com/">Pivot Bio </a>primarily to expand the reach of its platform.In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/32961">August 2024</a>, Arable collaborated with Google to leverage agritech to promote water conservation and crop productivity among Nebraska farms.Funding and financials<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/11852">In July 2022 </a>, Arable raised USD 40 million in Series C funding led by Galvanize Climate Solutions to support product development, delivery of new services, and international expansion.Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, the company’s sales grew by 4x during 2020 and 2022, while reporting a 300% sales growth in Q3 2020 alone.

Arable

The company’s aerial spectral imagery helps growers optimize water and fertilizer application, focusing on the midstream of the agriculture value chain. The company uses low-flying planes to capture and process these aerial spectral images. The images provide accurate and real-time information on the water and nutrient status of every plant in the field. The company has been focusing on the US and Australia.&nbsp;Its technology can be applied to vineyards, orchards, and row crops like corn, soybeans, and wheat. The company is more of a Data-as-a-Service organisation where the grower will pay Ceres Imaging by the acre and receive imagery and necessary support to integrate the information with broader crop management practices. The company has partnered with established companies like John Deere and Climate FieldView, which find that Ceres Imaging’s solutions (pest and disease detection weeks ahead of human detection) align with their products and services.&nbsp;In <a href="https://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2023/03/203925-ai-enhanced-data-analytics-product-suite-ceres-imaging-now-available-to-agriculture-insurers-lenders/">March 2023</a>, The company has unveiled Risk Solutions product suite, designed to power the next generation of risk models for insurers and lenders.In 2019, Ceres Imaging significantly expanded its operations with irrigated row crops throughout the central and western US.&nbsp;During the period, Ceres also nearly doubled its share of the&nbsp;California&nbsp;specialty crop market, going from managing 10% to 18% of all specialty crop acres in the state.&nbsp;In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16918">March 2023</a>, The company also expanded its services to Portugal and Spain.

Ceres Imaging

<div>
 
 SWIIM (Sustainable Water and Innovative Irrigation Management) System, with the support of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and various US grant universities, operates multi-patented technology developed to manage agricultural water budgets, allowing farmers to efficiently allocate water. The company focuses on the midstream of the agricultural value chain, supporting farmers through their harvesting process. The company’s technology is being widely deployed across western US states.
 
 
 The company provides a device that integrates with existing water measurement tools such as water gauges and analyzes real-time water usage via telemetry, offering farmers information on exactly how much water is used for crops and how much goes back into the ground.
 
 
 The company’s system can be used for any crop and irrigation system, lending its product flexibility and scope for potential expansion beyond the US. 
 
 
 In 2018, SWIIM acquired farm management software OnFarm Systems, which operates a customizable dashboard presenting data collected from a range of different internet of things (IoT) sources (weather, pest control, crop models) on any online device. The acquisition provided SWIIM customers with a differentiated product. Moreover, OnFarm’s 500 clients across the United States, Europe, and Asia at the time were accessible to SWIIM.  
 
 
 In 2020, SWIIM issued its own certification to farmers for the sustainable use of water, conveying to consumers that produce was grown with sustainable water management practices. In addition, SWIIM also introduced its “Certified Water Balance Report”, providing growers with an audited account of their water use. The company’s niche focus on water management, alongside its efforts at differentiation via acquisitions, arms it with potential to broaden its reach.
 
 
 
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SWIIM Systems

Start-ups providing smart machinery such as agricultural robots and autonomous tractors, as well as other smart hardware devices for crop and livestock management.

Operators of marketplaces connecting farmers, suppliers, buyers, experts and advisors to streamline the farming process.

Startups offering software and related hardware solutions that facilitate real time data tracking and sharing on animal weight, future weight forecasts, and animal health and behavioural analysis using RFID tags, sensors, big data, AI and machine learning.

Start-ups offering drone or satellite imagery to measure and monitor fields, spray pesticides, accurately present biological parameters, control the quality of sowing, etc.

Crop and livestock monitoring startups use AI for their analytics platform

Uses robots for harvesting, weeding, and related agricultural purposes

Uses data analytics and sensors and related technologies to provide crop and livestock monitoring insights

Provides solutions that maximizes efficiency throughout the agriculture value chain

IoT-enabled sensors are used in machinery and equipment to help with data collection

PROMINENT_CATEGORY

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Sentera, an agriculture drone and sensors company based in Minnesota, is offering early access to their AI-powered drone, the Aerial WeedScout. The drone, anticipated for commercial release in 2025, aims to optimize the use of herbicides.
The Aerial WeedScout utilizes aerial imagery collected by drones as well as AI to detect weeds in farmlands. Using this data, it creates herbicide prescriptions within 24 hours that can be used with any precision sprayer. Sentera asserts that its high-resolution imagery generation and direct georeferencing techniques facilitate coverage of 80 acres per hour. Additionally, this technology decreases herbicide usage by 70%.

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Sentera

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