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AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
AGTECH INVESTING REPORT 2015
INTRODUCTION
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
DISCLOSURE
Opinions and estimates offered constitute our judgment and are subject to change without notice, as are statements of financial
market trends, which are based on current market conditions. We believe the information provided here is reliable, but do not
warrant its accuracy or completeness. This material is not intended as an offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any financial
instrument. The views and strategies described may not be suitable for all investors. This material has beenprepared for
informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, accounting, legal, tax advice, or
investment matters and are advised to consult their own professional advisers.. References to future returns are not promises or
even estimates of actual returns a client portfolio may achieve. Any forecasts contained herein are for illustrative purposes only and
are not to be relied upon as advice or interpreted as a recommendation.
North CapitalPrivate Securities and AgFunder do not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements,
whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Any discussion in this document of past or proposed outcomes
should not be relied upon as any indication of future outcomes.
2
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
AGTECH INVESTING REPORT 2015
INTRODUCTION
What a year 2015 was for food and agriculture technology. The year saw 499 companies
attract $4.6 billion of investment across 526 rounds of financing[1], far surpassing our
initial expectations for the year, and nearly doubling 2014 figures ($2.36bn)[2].
Although food ecommerce dominated the sector for 2015, with $1.65 billion of
investment, the rest of the sector still attracted >$2.9 billion of investment[1]; far outpacing
2014, which saw $1.9 billion in non-food ecommerce deals[2]. Of that $2.9 billion, diversity
was the name of the game as the year’s largest deals came from three different
categories: sustainable protein (Impossible Foods $100m), drones & robotics (DJI $75m),
and decision support technology (Planet Labs $123m)[1].
Gone are the days when agtech encompassed simply seed genetics and biofuels. Today,
agtech is being driven by a confluence of technologies: ubiquitous mobile computing that
de-tethers computing from the desktop and brings technology outdoors and to industrial
environments; inexpensive energy storage and capture to run these devices;
sophisticated sensors to automate data gathering; drones & robotics that can operate in
complex outdoor environments; digital imagery; inexpensive and efficient LEDs; and big
data analysis & new advances in artificial intelligence that help make sense of it all.
We continue to believe that agriculture industry is proving to be an excellent first
market for many of the most exciting technology developments because there
are still so many problems to solve.
AgFunder is an online
investment platform for
food and agriculture
technology. We help
accredited and institutional
investors discover & invest
in technologies which
transform the agriculture
industry.
Learn more @
www.agfunder.com
Authors: Louisa Burwood-Taylor,
Rob Leclerc, and Melissa Tilney.
Design: Simona Barta
Still on our mission to feed 10bn by 2050!
Rob Leclerc, AgFunder CEO
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
Data Sources
Data for 2014 and 2015 was provided by CrunchBase[1] and
supplemented with private communications with investors.
Data Limitations
Because the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
requires companies to publicly file their financings with the SEC,
there may be many more non-U.S. companies that receive
financing, but which are absent from our analysis.
UndisclosedFinancings
Of the 526 financings in our curated data set,83 had
undisclosed financings which could not be determined through
SEC filings[2] or direct sources. We excluded undisclosed
financings when we computed averages and median values. In
some cases, we were able to obtain financing figures directly
from the the investors, on the condition that they only be
included in the aggregate figures.
Multiple Financings
In some cases, CrunchBase displayed multiple financings for
the same company in the same year. In the case of discrete
series (Seed, A, B,…) of financings or asset classes (debt vs
equity), we counted these as separate rounds. In the case
where a company raised capital two or more times in the same
round, we aggregated the total financing into the largest
financing for that round.
SpecialAcknowledgement
Special thanks to Tim Li and the rest of the CrunchBase team
for their support and assistance.
Sources
SOURCES
4
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
CATEGORIZATION
Category Descriptions
AnimalHealth& Nutrition: we only include companies that identify
agricultural livestock as a key market. (Miscellaneous).
Biomaterials & Biochemicals include companies using biological
materialtoproduce/farm: peptides,bioplastics,non-ag inputs,
microorganisms,pharmaceuticals,microbes and algae,functional
ingredients/nutrients/phytoceuticals.While it could technically fall
into this category,we split bioenergy out due tothe high volumes
of investment in this segment.
Cannabis Technology companies developing technologies for the
cannabis market. (Miscellaneous)
Decision Support Techis our software-focused category
encompassing the large majority of precision agriculture
technologies, excluding those in drones & robotics, and smart
equipment & hardware. Itincludes satellite data companies,big
data,and ERPtechnologies.
Drones & Robotics companies are those that are building drones
or robotic technologies which have self identified food and
agriculture as a key market.
Farm-2-Consumer companies are those that directly deliver food to
consumers from farms,differing from food e-commerce,which
involves e-grocers,mealkit delivery services,and specialist meal
delivery. (Miscellaneous)
Food E-Commercee-grocers,mealkit delivery,and specialist meal
services. Excludes restaurant delivery which has less of a disruptive
effect on the agriculture value chain.
Foodtechis a broad category including food processing,food
enhancing technology (e.g. flavor or nutritional value), packaging,
food analysis.
Food Safety & Traceability includes allcompanies attempting to
track food production,food sterilization or introduce technologies
that reduce the risk of food safety concerns.
Indoor Agriculture includes all farming operations that occur
indoors or in a greenhouse,and the technologies that accompany
them. It does not include Cannabis-related tech,whichis spun out
into its owncategory.
Irrigation& Water techincludes all technologies involving the
management of water for agriculture. Some precisionirrigation
companies could technically fall into smart equipment or decision
support tech, but we felt that this categorizationwould be more
informative.
Smart Equipment & Hardware predominantly includes sensor
technology, Internet of Things (IoT),and other non-robotic
machinery.
Soil & Crop Technology includes: biological inputs and treatments,
chemicalinputs, genetics–basedtech,new crops,seed technology.
Sustainable Proteincompanies are those looking toreplace
traditionalsources of proteinsuch as meat and eggs. These
companies are mainly using plant proteins tocreate product.
Waste techincludes any products made out of food waste,
wastewater treatment facilities and technology,and waste
mitigationtechnologies. (Miscellaneous)
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AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
YEAR IN REVIEW
6
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
672
Unique
Investors
526
Deals
$4.6B
Invested
OVERVIEW2015
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AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
1. Agtech surpasses expectations; is there a bubble?
The $4.6 billion that was raised in 2015 is nearly double 2014’s
$2.36 billion total[1], and outpaced growth in the broader
venture capital market[2].
Annual global financing of VC-backed companies grew 78% in
2014 on 2013 levels, and a further 44% in 2015, according to
the Venture Pulse Report 2015[2]. By comparison, agtech
investment grew 166% in 2014[1] and 92% for 2015.
This rapid growth against the backdrop of a frothy market
raises the question: is agtech in a bubble?
While we think that the food e-commerce sector continues to
be overheated against a backdrop of questionable unit
economics and increasing competition, we believe that much
of the rest of the market is still facing financing challenges not
seen in other mainstream technology sectors. Indeed,outside
of food e-commerce, we see very few deals of over $50 million
in size and agtech dedicated funds are still relatively few and
small in size.
Another way to sanity check the market is to compare agtech
investment with the global agriculture market. In 2015, global
agriculture represented about 10% of global GDP[3] ($7.8
trillion). That means that agtech investment is less than 0.5% of
the entire agriculture market.
Moreover, total agtech investment is <3.5% of the $128.5
billion invested in venture backed companies in 2015[2] – which
seems small for a sector responsible for 10% of GDP. By
comparison, health care represents about 12% of global
GDP[4,5] and received nearly 12% of total venture funding last
year[2]; that’s over three times the total investment in agtech.
2. The sky’s the limit for drones & robotics
In contrast to food e-commerce, drones & robotics can take
human labor out of the equation, and have enormous
potential improve operating margins. The 237% increase in
investment on 2014 volumes to $389 million in 2015 reflects a
bullish investor sentiment.
Drones made up the vast majority of this total with DJI’s $75
million Series B and 3D Robotics’ $50 million Series C listed in
the year’s top 15 equity deals across the whole sector.
Questions were raised in 2015 around the efficacy of drones
for agriculture, such as the time taken to process and analyze
images, and the manpower needed to launch and ground-
truth the findings. While 80% of UAVs will be used for precision
ag in the near future[6], more progress needs to be made in the
technology attached to drones before this segment will create
real efficiencies for farmers.
FiveStandout Themes for 2015
THEMES
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AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
In robotics, Blue River Technologies, a Californian startup using
computer vision and machine learning to weed crops, raised
$17 million in Series B funding. Investors included agtechVC
heavyweights Syngenta Ventures, Monsanto Growth Ventures,
and Pontifax Global Food and Agriculture Technology Fund, as
well as big name VCs Khosla Ventures and Innovation
Endeavors. But despite this impressive line-up, it was one of
very few robotics startups to raise funding (5 out of 26 deals).
Some investors are concerned that robotics companies are too
capital intensive compared to software companies, and that
hardware is easier to copy and expensive to distribute. But as
global technology giants increasingly turn their corporate
venturing arms towards agriculture – think Yamaha, Intel and
Verizon – this segment could attract more funding in 2016.
3. Biologicals dug in with $120m
Companies manufacturing biological inputs such as
biopesticides, biofertilizers, and soil amendments, largely
dominated this year’s soil & crop technology segment raising
$120 million across 20 deals. This represents 71% of the
subsector’s $168 million total, leaving seed tech and ag
genetics companies to make up the remaining 29%.
The growth in the number of biological solutions for farmers
coincides with increasing emphasis among entrepreneurs,
farmers and consumers globally on improving soil health;
pursuing sustainable farming practices; and reducing the use
of chemical inputs.
Biologicals attracted a swathe deep-pocketed investors
including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The University of
Texas Investment Management Company, Sequoia Capital, and
the corporate venturing arms of agribusiness giants Monsanto
and Syngenta.
As awareness of the importance of soil health increases,
particularly with global climate change talks gathering pace, we
believe that a growing numbers of environmentally-aware
farmers and organic-eating consumers will keep this segment
on an upward trajectory.
4. Precision agriculture continues to gather pace
While it’s still early days for the precision agriculture technology
industry – some have likened it to the internet in the 1990s –
the segment continues to attract many of the biggest deals. In
our spotlight below we classify precision ag companies as
those aiming to bring efficiencies to the farm – whether
through inputs, time or labor – and primarily draw from the
categories of decision support technologies, irrigation & water,
drones & robotics, and smart equipment & hardware. During
the year, some 84 precision ag companies raised $661 million
across 96 deals with some coming to the market twice for
funding.
FiveStandout Themes for 2015
THEMES
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AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
FiveStandout Themes for 2015
THEMES
The sheer volume of capital coming into the subsector raised
some eyebrows in the industry, particularly as data integration
and standardization remain issues. This has arguably made it
challenging for some companies in this space to raise funding
from new investors.
5. Increasing geographic diversity
Companies based in the United States raised just over half of
agtech’s total global funding during the year, taking in $2.4
billion. By number of deals, this was 58% of the year’s activity,
which is much lower than the 90% share in 2014[1]. We
attribute this not only to increased investment in international
deals, but also increased reporting by international companies
and the continued globalization of private capital markets.
Israel asserted its runner-up status in agtech innovation with
companies collecting nearly $550 million over the year. The
country has also climbed the Global Competitiveness Index to
rank third in its capacity for innovation, third for the world’s
best research institutions, and ninth in the availability of
venture capital[7].
Innovations from emerging markets India and China took the
third ($506m) and fourth slot ($480m) in our geographical
rankings respectively. While the vast majority of deals were in
Food e-commerce, the two countries are home to leaders in
the irrigation space and in the drones space — India’s Jain
Irrigation ($120m) and China’s DJI ($75m). With the urgent need
for agricultural innovation in both countries, India and China
may be well positioned as agtech centers in the coming years.
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AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
DEAL ACTIVITY BY QUARTER
# Deals
Financing | $Millions
$467 $416
$509
$969
$1,254
$933
$1,129
$1,257
55
78
67
64
153
132
129
112
2014-Q1 2014-Q2 2014-Q3 2014-Q4 2015-Q1 2015-Q2 2015-Q3 2015-Q4
Deal Volume and Activity by Quarter[1]
11
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
There was a step-change in agtech investment activity in 2013
when it jumped 75% year-over-year to $900 million.
This activity followed some successful exits in the biologicals
arena in 2012 such as when German chemical company BASF
acquired seed treatment company Becker Underwood for $1
billion[3]. But it was The Climate Corporation’s $1 billion exit to
Monsanto at the end of 2013[4] that really breathed life into the
sector and 2014 investment volumes reached $2.36 billion.
2015 has now completely eclipsed these figures, as we report a
94% increase on 2014 volumes[1], and surpassing our mid-year
expected run rate of $4.1 billion[2].
$0.4 $0.5 $0.5
$0.9
$2.4
$4.6
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Annual Financing 2010– 2015[1,2]
DEAL ACTIVITY BY QUARTER
Financing | $Billions
12
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
DEALS BY SUBSECTOR
13
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
36%
15%8%
7%
6%
4%
4%
4%
2%
2%
12%
Food Ecommerce
Irrigation & Water
Drones & Robotics
Bioenergy
Decision Support
Technology
Biomaterials &
Biochemicals
Soil & Crop Technology
SustainableProtein
Foodtech
Food Safety &
Traceability
MiscellaneousOther
2015AgTech Investment Subsector Breakdown
DEALS BY SUBSECTOR
% of Total Investment Dollars
Food e-commerce (excludes restaurant
delivery) startups raised $1.65 billion in
2015, an >300% increase from 2014[1]
($370m) as the subsector overtook
bioenergy for the top spot.
We saw an increase in Irrigation &
Water technology investment in the
first half of the year with a few large
deals pushing up the total.
Technologies in the ‘miscellaneous’
category absorbed 12 percent of the
total funding for the year as the
diversity of startups in the sector
rapidly increased on 2014 levels. The
largest deals in this category were from
Iron Planet ($55m), an online
marketplace for heavy equipment, and
Ginkgo Bioworks ($45m), an organism
engineering company.
Drones & robotics and decision
support tech both increased their
portion of the pie with 8% and 6%
respectively, while bioenergy sank to
7% in 2015 from 16% in 2014[1] as the
sector faces headwinds from dwindling
oil prices.
14
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
137
22
42
19
46
23
35
7
24
19
19
19
20
35
12
22
25
137
22
42
19
46
23
35
7
24
19
19
19
20
35
12
22
25
$1,653
$673
$383
$305
$295
$190
$168
$160
$110
$95
$91
$77
$70
$68
$50
$26
$159
Food Ecommerce
Irrigation & Water
Drones & Robotics
Bioenergy
Decision Support Technology
Biomaterials & Biochemicals
Soil & Crop Technology
Sustainable Protein
Foodtech
Food Safety & Traceability
Waste Tech
Indoor Agriculture
Farm to Consumer
Cannabis
Animal Nutrition & Health
Smart Equipment & Hardware
Miscellaneous
The Food e-commerce and irrigation
& water technology categories were
both outliers in 2015 raising a
collective $2.2 billion across 159
deals.
Besides these subsectors, companies
tended to raise capital in three
groups: under $400 million, under
$200 million and under $90 million.
By number of deals, excluding food e-
commerce, decision support
technology was most active with 46
deals. The dealsizes in this segment
were still relatively small indicating the
immaturity of companies in this
space, although they still raised $295
million.
Drones & robotics startups, also
largely used for precision agriculture,
raised $383 million across 42 deals.
Deal Volume and Activity by Subsector
DEALS BY SUBSECTOR
Financing | $Millions
# Deals
15
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
Median deals sizes were still quite low in
2015 and followed a similar trend within
the subsectors.
Four investment rounds above $10
million from Rosa Labs (formerly
Soylent), Beyond Meat and Ripple Foods
meant the median for the Sustainable
Protein subsector remained high, as
venture capital firms continue to place
big bets in a sector that promises to
disrupt the meat and egg industry. The
median was lower than in 2014 when it
was $23 million[1].
The median sizes for hardware and
software categories – drones & robotics
and decision support tech – remained
low as these sectors are still in their
infancy.
Median Deal Size
DEALS BY SUBSECTOR
Financing | $Millions
$15.3
$10.0
$4.0
$3.2
$3.0
$3.0
$2.4
$2.1
$2.0
$2.0
$1.8
$1.5
$1.4
$1.3
$0.8
$0.6
$2.3
Sustainable Protein
Bioenergy
Farm to Consumer
Food Safety & Traceability
Irrigation & Water
Waste Tech
Animal Nutrition & Health
Drones & Robotics
Indoor Agriculture
Biomaterials & Biochemicals
Soil & Crop Technology
Decision Support Technology
Foodtech
Food Ecommerce
Cannabis
Smart Equipment & Hardware
Miscellaneous
16
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
167
Unique
Investors
96
Deals
$661M
Invested
Precision Ag
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AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
Precision ag continued to attract more
venture dollars in 2015, increasing
140% from 2014[1] ($276m).
Precision ag companies were primarily
drawn from top level categories of
drones & robotics, decision support
technologies, irrigation & water, and
smart equipment & hardware.
For this spotlight we’ve taken a more
granular approach, grouping
companies either by technology
(drones, hardware & sensors, robotics,
satellite & imagery, software) or
application (irrigation, weather).
Following new FAA rules that provided
more guidance for commercial drones,
drone companies saw $328 million of
funding, capturing 237% more
investment than in 2014[1], and 49% of
the total funding in precision ag.
Drones captured nine of the top 20
financings in precision ag.
Precision AgSubsector Breakdown
SPOTLIGHT PRECISION AGRICULTURE
% of Total Investment Dollars
49%
27%
11%
6%
4% 3%
1%
Drones
Satellite &Imagery
Software
Robotics
Irrigation
Hardware &
Sensors
Weather
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AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
$123.0
$75.0
$64.0
$42.0
$35.2
$27.0
$24.5
$23.5
$21.2
$21.1
$17.7
$17.0
$15.0
$11.0
$10.0
$9.0
$9.0
$8.8
$8.7
$8.3
Planet Labs
DJI
3D Robotics
Ehang
Parrot
Skycatch
CyPhy Works
Clearpath Robotics
Pulse Aerospace
Granular
Conservis
Blue River Technology
Farmers Business Network
Swift Navigation
Mavrx
CropX
DroneDeploy
Intermap Technologies
Orbital Insight,Inc.
Intelescope Solutions
Spotlight on Precision Ag: Top 20 Deals
SPOTLIGHT PRECISION AGRICULTURE
Financing | $Millions
As precision agriculture companies
increasingly combine insights from a
variety of sources, satellite imagery
gathered pace as a decision support tool,
capturing 25% of precision ag funding
($166m).
While most satellite companies offer field-
level crop health information, others are
using historic data to make yield
predictions. Planet Labs,which raised a
$123 million Series C ($93m equity, $25m
debt),acquired RapidEye[1], which has five
multispectral satellites that can assist in
monitoring vegetation health and
measuring biomass across a number of
metrics.
Precision ag software also saw some
large deals throughout the year, including
Granular ($21m), Conservis ($17.7m),
Farmer’s Business Network ($15m),
Farmobile ($5.5m), and an unreported
round by Farmer’s Edge which
announced a $41m round in January
2016. In total, 19 precision ag software
companies raised capital.
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AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
0 1 2 3
Lux Capital
Data Collective
Innovation Endeavors
Eclipse
Monsanto Growth Ventures
Syngenta Ventures
Crosslink Capital
Techstars
Industry Ventures
Space Angels Network
GV
Pontifax AgTech
ff Venture Capital
Cultivian Sandbox Ventures
Verizon Ventures
CapAgro
Serra Ventures
lool ventures
Mitsui & Co
Qualcomm Incorporated
SOSV
In 2014 we recorded 13 investors who
invested in two or more precision ag deals[1].
For 2015, this jumped to 21 investors.
Monsanto Growth Ventures and Syngenta
Ventures (which may be feeling some heat
after Monsanto acquired Climate
Corporation in 2013 for nearly $1 billion[2])
led the agtech-focused VCs with three deals
apiece. Monsanto invested in HydroBio, Blue
River Technology, and VitalFields, while
Syngenta invested in Planet Labs,Blue River
Technology, and Phytech.
Illinois-based Serra Ventures, which invested
in three companies last year and saw an exit
with 640 Labs[3], made another three in 2015
including Agrible – in which they first invested
in 2014 – and two rounds in Oso
Technologies, which is developing a plant soil
sensor.
Spotlight on Precision Ag: Investors in 2+Deals
SPOTLIGHT PRECISION AGRICULTURE
Number of Deals
20
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
44
Unique
Investors
35
Deals
$168M
Invested
Soil CropTech
21
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
$34.5
$10.3
$10.0
$7.3
$7.3
$6.1
$5.6
$5.0
$3.0
$2.4
$1.2
$1.0
$1.0
$.8
AgBiome
Origene Seeds
Phagelux
AgriMetis
Benson Hill Biosystems
PlantResponse Biotech
LemnaTec
Metabolon
Asilomar Bio
Exosect
Weeding Technologies
Eden Shield
Provivi
Inocucor Technologies
Ceradis
SPOTLIGHT SOIL & CROP TECHNOLOGIES
While precision ag has captured the agtech
spotlight the past few years, high-profile
agtech investors and top-tier VCs are still
investing heavily in the Soil & Crop technology
(see next page). This was particularly true for
biologicals, which do not suffer the same
stigma as GMO or chemicals and can achieve
organic certification.
AgBiome, which has produced its first product
to control soil-borne diseases, raised the
largest soil & crop tech venture capital dealof
the year in a $34.5 million Series B. The
company got a particular boost as the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation invested alongside
leading agtechVCs Monsanto Growth
Ventures, Syngenta Ventures and Pontifax
Food and Agriculture Technology Fund.
Spotlight on Soil & Crop Tech: Top 15 VC Deals Financing | $Millions
22
UNDISCLOSED
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
$34.5
$10.3
$10.0
$7.3
$7.3
$6.1
$5.6
$5.0
$3.0
AgBiome
Origene Seeds
Phagelux
AgriMetis
Benson Hill Biosystems
PlantResponse Biotech
LemnaTec
Metabolon
Asilomar Bio
Ceradis
SPOTLIGHT SOIL & CROP TECHNOLOGIES
Financing | $Millions
UNDISCLOSED
FALL LINE CAPITAL
UNDISCLOSED
Soil & Crop Technology Investors
23
UNDISCLOSED
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
262
Unique
Investors
137
Deals
$1.65B
Invested
Food E-Commerce
24
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
While a few very large deals skewed the food e-
commerce data,it was still an active sector with
137 companies raising $1.65 billion in 2015.
Companies in the segment raised double the
volumes reached in H1-2015 ($551m)[1].
Food e-commerce startups popped up all over
the globe with 21 countries represented in this
dataset. India was the most active region as 51
startups raised funding, vying for a piece of its
$15 billion food delivery market[2]. Competition
in the US was not far off as we identified 48
startups raising capital in the space.
China’s Womai, a subsidiary of major Chinese
agribusiness COFCO, raised the most ($200
million Series C), followed by US-based Blue
Apron, the meal kit delivery company ($135m
Series D).
Europe’s HelloFresh was the third biggest deal
in the sector with its $126 million Series E
round ($211m for the year).
Snapshot: Top 20 Food Ecommerce Deals
SPOTLIGHT OF FOOD ECOMMERCE
Financing | $Millions
$200.0
$135.0
$126.0
$120.0
$85.0
$85.0
$80.0
$70.0
$70.0
$50.0
$45.0
$35.0
$35.0
$30.0
$30.0
$30.0
$30.0
$26.7
$25.1
$22.0
Womai
Blue Apron
HelloFresh
Grofers
HelloFresh
Munchery
Jiuxian.com
Beequick
Fruitday
Bigbasket.com
Sprig
Grofers
Plated
Benlai Life
FAASOS
NatureBox
Thrive Market
RedMart
Mathem
Snap Kitchen
Series F
Series E
Series C
Series B
25
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
DEALS BY STAGE
26
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
$130
$786
$692
$1,083
$280
$880
$722
$10
260
123
46
27
8
32
17
14
Seed A B C D Late/
Other
Debt Grant/Non-Equity
Deal Volume and Activity by Stage
DEALS BY STAGE
#Deals
Financing | $Millions
Crowdfunding
Series A deal activity gained ground in 2015 accounting for nearly 24% of deal flow, compared to 20% in
2014[1], as more startups matured to the later stage funding.
While 2015 saw more dollars invested, it also saw more companies funded. For Seed to Series B, we saw a decline in the median and
average funding rounds suggesting that many early stage agech companies continue to struggle to raise capital despite more capital
entering the space.
27
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
Deal Average and Median by Stage
DEALS BY STAGE
Crowdfunding
Aside from seed stage which is relatively
undercapitalized and Series C which was
flush with food e-commerce deals, average
round sizes were on the lower end, but
similar, to those recorded by Mattermark for
the U.S. venture capital industry[1].
Mattermark reported that H1 averages for
seed stage deals were $1.3-1.6 million (vs.
$660k average, $400k median); Series A: $7-
9 million (vs $7m average, $5m median);
Series B: $18 million (vs $16.5m, $13.7m
median); Series C: $23-30 million (vs $41.6m
average, $30m median).
Median | $ Millions
Average | $Millions
$0.66 $7
$16
$42
$40
$29
$42
$0.84
$0.40
$5
$14
$30
$6
$11
$9
$0.10
Seed A B C D Late/
Other
Debt Grant/Non-Equity
28
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
DEALS BY STAGE
$82
$419
$349
$617
$299
$424
$171
$130
$786
$683
$1,083
$280
$890
$722
Seed A B C D Late/
Other
Debt
Deal Volume, 2014 |$Millions
Deal Volume, 2015 |$Millions
Deals By Stage 2014vs2015
29
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
Seed stage deals once again dominated
the year in terms of deal activity with
49% of deal flow. This indicates that
agtech is growing as a sector of focus
for entrepreneurs, and providing a
broad pipeline of companies for later
stage VCs in 2016.
Food e-commerce deals were the most
numerous at this stage (82). Skyward, a
drone company, raised the year’s
largest seed deal.
Decision support tech startups followed
with 21 deals, including satellite
imagery company Descartes Labs
raising $3.3 million. Drones & robotics
companies raised funding across 20
deals.
Geographically the U.S. was the most
active country at seed stage (140)
followed by India (39).
Top 20 Seed Deals
DEALS BY STAGE
$4.1
$3.3
$3.3
$3.2
$3.0
$3.0
$3.0
$3.0
$2.7
$2.1
$2.1
$2.0
$2.0
$2.0
$2.0
$1.9
$1.8
$1.8
$1.8
$1.8
Skyward
Keenan Recycling
Descartes Labs
Intelligent Wireless Networks
Harvest Urban Farms
Knock Mart
PowWow Energy
Yumist
Naio Technologies
Edyn
GrubMarket Inc
Back to the Roots
Bright Cellars
DroneViewTechnologies
ZuperMeal
Biosyntia
Satvacart
GreenIQ
My Table
Clara Foods
Financing | $Millions
30
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
While Food e-commerce companies
largely dominated Series A rounds in
terms of size, there were some
impressive deals across a range of
subsectors with no clear trend.
Of the companies that progressed to
Series A during the year, Zymergen, a
company bringing robotic automation,
proprietary software, and deep
computer analytics to farm and harvest
materials from microbes raised the
largest round.
Next came Thrive Market, the online,
affordable healthy food delivery
service, and Mathem, Sweden’s largest
online grocery.
Aside from food–commerce plays, Innit
($25m), a company using machine
learning to create cooking systems,
and Clearpath Robotics ($23m), which
is building unmanned vehicle robots,
raised the largest Series A deals.
Top 20 Series A Deals
DEALS BY STAGE
Financing | $Millions
31
$44.0
$30.0
$25.1
$25.0
$23.5
$22.0
$21.2
$20.0
$19.6
$17.7
$16.6
$15.5
$15.1
$15.0
$15.0
$13.6
$13.6
$12.0
$11.0
$11.0
Zymergen
Thrive Market
Mathem
Innit
Clearpath Robotics
Snap Kitchen
Pulse Aerospace
RosaLabs
Zesty
Undisclosed
MinnesotaMedical Solutions
Green Chef
Sohan Lal Commodity Mgmt
1mxians
honestbee
Shopwings
Ripple Foods
HappyFresh
Eaze
Swift Navigation
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
75.0
45.0
45.0
42.0
35.0
35.0
34.5
22.0
22.0
22.0
22.0
21.1
20.0
20.0
17.0
16.0
16.0
15.0
15.0
13.7
DJI
Ginkgo Bioworks
Sprig
Ehang
Grofers
Plated
AgBiome
CyPhy Works
Nomacorc
Skycatch
Vayyar
Granular
AeroFarms
Beequick
Blue River Technology
FAASOS
Farmigo
Farmers Business Network
Yummly
BrightFarms
Top 20 Series B Deals
DEALS BY STAGE
Financing | $Millions
Chinese drone company DJI raised the
largest Series B in what was one of the
biggest deals of the year across all
segments and stages. It was a particularly
big year for the company’s ag market
after it launched its first drone designed
specifically for agriculture, the Agras MG-
1 crop sprayer.
Ginkgo Bioworks, an organism
engineering company, raised $45 million,
as did Sprig, a healthy food e-commerce
company.
Grofers, one of India’s more established
e-grocers, raised its Series A ($10m), B
($35m) and C ($120m) round all in 2015,
taking its total funding to $166 million.
32
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
DEALS BY GEOGRAPHY
33
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
US companies accounted for 58%
of 2015’s total deal flow.
This is a drop from 2014[1] when
the US represented 90% of deal
activity.
This dramatic change in activity
levels reflects not only increased
investment in international deals,
but likely an increase in reporting
by international issuers that are
taking a more global view of their
companies and are seeking to
attract the attention of
international investors.
Top 10 investment destinations
were US (303), India (64), Canada
(25), UK (19), Israel (15), France
(11), Germany (10), China,
Netherlands (8), Switzerland (7),
Australia (6).
Global Investment: Number of Deals by Country
DEALS BY GEOGRAPHY
3031
#Deals Funded
Log Scale
34
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
$200.0
$126.0
$120.0
$85.0
$80.0
$75.0
$70.0
$70.0
$50.0
$42.0
$35.2
$35.0
$30.0
$30.0
$26.7
$25.1
$23.5
$22.0
$20.0
$17.7
Womai
HelloFresh
Grofers
HelloFresh
Jiuxian.com
DJI
Beequick
Fruitday
Bigbasket.com
Green Biologics
Parrot
Grofers
Benlai Life
FAASOS
RedMart
Mathem
Clearpath Robotics
Vayyar
Beequick
Nutresia
Top 20 International Venture Deals (Excluding U.S.) Financing | $Millions
Undisclosed
Asian companies lead the international scoreboard this
year, repeating a trend seen in 2014[1].
Three food delivery companies in China raised
particularly large rounds (Womai, $200m, Jiuxian.com
$80m and Fruitday $70m), as did India’s Grofers
($120m) and BigBasket.com ($50m) and Japan’s
Beequick ($70m).
Germany’s HelloFresh interrupted this trend by raising
two rounds during the year ($85m Series E, $126m
Series F).
After China’s DJI,Green Biologics from the UK was the
largest non food e-commerce deal as the bio-based
renewable chemicals company raised a $42m Series C.
Australia was noticeably absent from the international
leader board this year and Canada, which had 25
companies funded, appeared just once compared to
seven deals in the top 20 in 2014[1].
DEALS BY GEOGRAPHY
35
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
Top 20 U.S. Venture Deals Financing | $Millions
$135.0
$108.0
$93.0
$85.0
$85.0
$64.0
$50.0
$45.0
$45.0
$44.0
$42.0
$40.0
$35.0
$34.5
$30.0
$30.0
$30.0
$28.6
$25.0
$23.0
Blue Apron
Impossible Foods
Planet Labs
HelloFresh
Munchery
3D Robotics
Premise
Ginkgo Bioworks
Sprig
Zymergen
Ehang
Joule Unlimited
Plated
AgBiome
Fulcrum Bioenergy
NatureBox
Thrive Market
Rheonix
Innit
Agrivida
US agtech startups raised $2.2 billion in
2015, nearly half of all global investment,
reflecting the country’s technical and
financial lead across many subsectors.
Food e-commerce led venture deals in the
US, with meal kit delivery company Blue
Apron raising $135 million at Series D and
HelloFresh raising $126 million at Series E.
Sustainable protein company Impossible
Foods raised $108 million at Series C
reflecting the US’s leadership in this space
as increasing numbers of options come to
market.
Planet Labs’ $93 million Series C (Not
including $25m of venture debt) also
highlights the US activity in satellite data
capture. We expect to see more companies
in this segment raise funding in 2016.
DEALS BY GEOGRAPHY
36
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
U.S. Investment: Number of Deals by State
DEALS BY GEOGRAPHY
While California predictably leads
other states in the US for agriculture
innovation (31% of deals), this
proportion shrunk from 46% in 2014,
as a growing number of alternative
agtech innovation hubs pop up across
the country.
Initiatives, such as accelerator
programs and incubators, in parts of
the Midwest and on the east coast are
helping to increase the level of
investment activity in those regions.
Top 10 investment destinations were
California (96), New York (34),
Massachusetts (25), Colorado (25),
North Carolina (11), Missouri, Oregon,
Washington (9), Texas, Illinois (8),
Florida (7), Minnesota, Pennsylvania
(6), New Mexico (5).
3031
#Deals Funded
Log Scale
37
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
U.S. Investment: Dollar Value of Deals by State
DEALS BY GEOGRAPHY
Financing | $Millions
$1,247.5
$483.0
$213.1
$75.8
$72.4
$54.5
$27.3
$26.7
$21.0
$19.7
$17.4
$13.7
$13.4
$13.0
$11.0
$9.9
$9.9
$8.3
$7.4
$5.5
California
New York
Massachusetts
North Carolina
Colorado
Texas
Minnesota
Kansas
Illinois
Missouri
Nebraska
Oregon
New Mexico
Maryland
Washington
Florida
New Jersey
Connecticut
Michigan
Pennsylvania
While its portion of deal activity fell in
2015, California was still by far the busiest
state for agtech investment activity with
$1.25 billion raised across 96 deals.
New York overtook Illinois and Colorado
to become the second most active hub
for agtech investment as $483 million
worth of funding across 34 deals took
place there during 2015.
Massachusetts, namely Boston, was
another increasingly active region for
agtech funding as $213 million was raised
across 25 deals.
38
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
INVESTOR ACTIVITY
39
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
548
81 22
9 7 2 3 1 1
x1 x2 x3 x4 x5 x6 x7 x10 x11
Number of Deals by Investors
INVESTOR ACTIVITY
#Investors
Overall deal activity grew for many
venture capital firms, particularly
those focused on agtech.
Early stage venture firm Sequoia
Capital scored the most deals in
2015. All of them were in food e-
commerce as the firm invested into
multiple rounds of companies in India
and Japan.
SOSV, the accelerator VC, was not far
behind with 10 seed stage deals
across a range of subsectors
including Clara Foods, the sustainable
protein company which raised $1.75
million, Booster, a very early stage ag
data play, and Sothic Bioscience, a
biotech company.
Of the agtechheavyweights, Syngenta
Ventures and Middleland led the pack
with seven deals each. While Khosla
Ventures, which invested in 10 agtech
deals in 2014, did just three in 2015.
40
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Sequoia Capital
SOSV
Syngenta Ventures
Middleland Capital
Techstars
Monsanto Growth Ventures
The Yield Lab
Data Collective
Accel
Cultivian Sandbox Ventures
CapAgro
Anterra Capital
500 Startups
GreenSoil Investments
Bessemer Venture Partners
Felicis Ventures
AME Cloud Ventures
Innovation Endeavors
e.ventures
Formation 8
Pontifax AgTech
Serra Ventures
gener8tor
FOOD-X
Investors with4+ Deals
INVESTOR ACTIVITY
Deal activity from agtech-focused VCs gathered
pace in 2015 with Syngenta Ventures,
Monsanto Growth Ventures and Middleland
Capital all investing in six or more deals. They
invested across the agtech spectrum joining
forces on deals like PlantResponse Biotech,
Blue River, and AgBiome.
Agtech veteran VC Cultivian Sandbox frequently
invested alongside Middleland Capital (5). While
Anterra Capital and CapAgro brought the
European agtech industry to the league (5).
Israeli-based GreenSoil invested in five Israeli
agtech companies.
Relative newcomer Pontifax Food and
Agriculture Technology Fund started making
waves in the industry with four deals.
Agtech accelerator The Yield Lab also joined the
party with its first cohort of six startups,
investing $100k each.
Number of Deals
41
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
Bessemer Venture Partners invested in
later stage deals of Series B and up, and
participated in the largest median round
sizes. Bessemer invested in two Food e–
commerce deals (Blue Apron, $135m and
BigBasket.com, $50m), as well as drones
company CyPhy Works ($22m) and food
safety company Vayyar ($22m).
While the median deal size for agtech-
focused deals was no more than half of
this, a greater number of agtech VCs (10)
participated into the top 20 for median
rounds than in 2014 (5)[1]. Syngenta
Ventures overtook Open Prairie’s $16
million median from 2014[1].
A group of the more active agtech VCs
tended to invest in deals between $5-$18
million while the early stage accelerators
understandably invested in deals below
$1.5 million.
Median Round Size of Investors with4+ Deals
INVESTOR ACTIVITY
Financing | $Millions
$36.0
$30.0
$27.0
$27.0
$18.5
$16.0
$15.5
$12.3
$9.0
$8.4
$7.0
$6.4
$6.1
$5.5
$5.0
$4.7
$0.7
$0.7
$0.5
$0.5
$0.5
$0.10
$ $10 $20 $30 $40
Bessemer Venture Partners
e.ventures
Felicis Ventures
AME Cloud Ventures
Syngenta Ventures
Sequoia Capital
Formation 8
Pontifax AgTech
Data Collective
Middleland Capital
Accel
500 Startups
Monsanto Growth Ventures
Anterra Capital
Cultivian Sandbox Ventures
CapAgro
gener8tor
The Yield Lab
SOSV
FOOD-X
Serra Ventures
Techstars
Green Soil Investments Undisclosed
42
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
Booster Filament AGERpoint (x2)
Clara Foods Homemade Apse
DTOR Inova Drone Arvegenix
Green Blender Morsel Holganix
Living Farm Platfarm S4
New Wave Foods Provender Terviva
Prospective Research Skyfront
Pynco
Sothic Bioscience Limited
UGo Smoothies
Most ActiveAccelerators (Non-Food Ecommerce)
INVESTOR ACTIVITY
43
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
AeroFarms AgBiome AgBiome DJI Ceradis
Agrivida Agrimetis Arvegenix IronPlanet Farmobile
Benson Hill BIosystems Blue River Technology Blue River Technology Opinio Food Freshness Technologies
Conservis Greenlight Biosciences HydroBio Teabox LemnaTec
Groundwork BioAg Illumitex PlantResponse Biotech ZopNow Voltea
MycoTechnology Phytech VitalFields
PlantResponse Biotech Planet Labs
Most ActiveVCs (Non Food E-commerce)
INVESTOR ACTIVITY
44
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
Force-A Agrivida Descartes Labs Rootility
Naio Technologies Asilomar Bio DroneDeploy CropX
Nutresia Conservis Ginko Bioworks Phenome Networks
Olygose Descartes Labs Planet Labs Ecofer
Vitfero enEvolv Zymergen BioHarvest
Most ActiveVCs (Non Food E-commerce)
INVESTOR ACTIVITY
45
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
APPENDIX
46
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
TOP 5 DEALS
Top 5 Deals: Bioenergy
Company Funding Date Raised Stage Investors
Green Biologics 1/21/2015 $42M Series C
Capricorn Venture Partners,Convergence
Holdings,Morningside Technology Partners,
Oxford Capital Partners,Sofinnova Partners,
Swire Pacific
EdeniQ 1/20/2015 $16M Series C
Angeleno Group,Draper Fisher Jurvetson
(DFJ),Flint Hills Resources,I2BF Global
Ventures
Chromatin 1/13/2015 $12M Series F
Illinois Ventures,Wood Creek Capital
Management
Calysta Energy 1/22/2015 $10M Series B AquaSpark, Walden Riverwood Ventures
Biogenic Reagents 1/23/2015 $4M Series B Undisclosed
47
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
Company Funding Date Raised Stage Investors
Zymergen 6/16/2015 $44M Series A
5 Prime Ventures,AME Cloud Ventures,Data
Collective, Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ),
HVF,Innovation Endeavors,Obvious
Ventures,True Ventures,Two Sigma
Ventures
Greenlight Biosciences 6/17/2015 $20M Series C
MLS Capital Fund,SyngentaVentures,Spruce
Capital Partners,Xeraya Capital
Olygose 1/5/2015 $6M Series A CapAgro, EMERTEC,Vives
Prairie Gold 4/29/2015 $4M Series A Undisclosed
Mirexus Biotechnologies 10/8/2015 $3M Series A
Asahi Kasei, Goddard Enterprises,GreenSky
Capital
TOP 5 DEALS
Top 5 Deals: Biomaterials & Biochemicals
48
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
TOP 5 DEALS
Top 5 Deals: Crop & Soil Technology
Company Funding Date Raised Stage Investors
AgBiome 8/20/2015 $35M Series B
Bill & MelindaGates Foundation,Pontifax
AgTech,SyngentaVentures,Monsanto
Growth Ventures
Phagelux 6/9/2015 $10M Series A Undisclosed
AgriMetis 2/13/2015 $7M Series A Acidophil, SyngentaVentures
Benson Hill Biosystems 8/26/2015 $7M Series A
AlexandriaVenture,Cultivation Capital,
Mercury Fund,Middleland Capital,Prelude
Ventures,Prolog Ventures
PlantResponse Biotech 11/26/2015 $6M Series A
Caixa Capital Risc, Middleland
Capital,Monsanto Growth
Ventures,Novozymes
49
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
TOP 5 DEALS
Top 5 Deals: Decision Support Technology
Company Funding Date Raised Stage Investors
Planet Labs 1/20/2015 $118M Series C& Debt
AME Cloud Ventures,Capricorn Investment
Group,DataCollective, DFJ,Felicis Ventures,
First Round,Founders Fund,Industry
Ventures,Innovation Endeavors, Lux Capital,
O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures,IFC,Space
Angels Network,SyngentaVentures,Western
Technology Investment
Premise 9/24/2015 $50M Series C Social Capital,Valor Equity Partners
Granular 9/92015 $21M Series B
Andreessen Horowitz,Emory Investment
Management,Fall Line Capital, Google
Ventures,H.Barton Asset Management,
Khosla Ventures,Tao Capital Partners
Farmers Business Network 5/19/2015 $15M Series B
DBL Investors, Google Ventures,Kleiner
Perkins Caufield & Byers
Orbital Insight 3/16/2016 $9M Series A
Bloomberg Beta, Citizen.VC, Google Ventures,
Lux Capital, SequoiaCapital
50
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
TOP 5 DEALS
Top 5 Deals: Drones & Robotics
Company Funding Date Raised Stage Investors
DJI 5/5/2015 $75M Series B Accel Partners
3D Robotics 2/25/2015 $64M Series C
Atlantic Bridge,DanhuaCapital,Foundry
Group,GWC,Mayfield Fund,Oreilly AlphaTech
Ventures,Qualcomm Ventures,SanDisk
Ventures,SheaVentures,SK Ventures,True
Ventures,WestSummit Capital
Ehang 8/24/2015 $42M Series B
GGV Capital, GPCapital, LeBox Capital,
OFC,PreAngel,ZhenFund
Parrot 11/20/2015 $35M Equity BPIfrance
Clearpath Robotics 10/15/2015 $23M Series A
Eclipse, GE Ventures,iNoviaCapital, RRE
Ventures
51
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
TOP 5 DEALS
Top 5 Deals: Farm 2 Consumer
Company Funding Date Raised Stage Investors
Farmigo 2015-09-15 $16M Series B Benchmark, Formation 8,Sherbrooke Capital
Vital Farms 2015-12-17 $13M
Equity (2
Rounds)
Undisclosed
GrubMarket 2015-09-18 $10M Series A
AME Cloud Ventures,Battery Ventures,Fosun
Capital Group,GGV Capital, Great Oaks
Venture Capital,Y Combinator
LaRuche qui dit Oiu 2015-06-16 $9M Series B
Felix Capital,Quadia, Union Square Ventures,
Xange Private Equity
Door to Door Organics 2015-11-18 $4 Series C Undisclosed
52
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
TOP 5 DEALS
Top 5 Deals: Food E-commerce
Company Funding Date Raised Stage Investors
Womai 10/12/2015 $200M Series C Baidu, Taikang Life Insurance
Blue Apron 6/9/2015 $135M Series D
Aspiration Growth, Bessemer Venture
Partners,BoxGroup, Fidelity Investments,First
Round,Peak Opportunity Partners,Stripes
Group,Jason Finger
HelloFresh 2/6/2015 $126M Series E Rocket Internet
Grofers 11/26/2015 $120M Series C
SequoiaCapital, SoftBank, Tiger Global
Management
HelloFresh 9/17/2015 $85M Series F Baillie Gifford
53
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
DEALS BY SUBSECTOR
Top 5 Deals: Food Safety & Traceability
Company Funding Date Raised Stage Investors
Rheonix 10/20/2015 $29M Equity
Advantage Capital Partners,Cayuga Venture
Fund,Gefinor Capital,Limestone Capital
Advisors,Onondaga Venture Capital
Fund,Rand Capital
Vayyar 12/15/2015 $22M Series B
Amiti Ventures,Battery Ventures,Bessemer
Venture Partners,Israel Cleantech Ventures
(ICV),Walden Riverwood Ventures
Sohan Lal Commodity Management 9/28/2015 $15M Series A Creation Investments,Everstone
Clear Labs 9/15/2015 $7M Series A
Felicis Ventures,HBR Genomics,Khosla
Ventures,Passport Capital, Plug & Play
Ventures
Vivione Biosciences 11/12/2015 $4M Equity Undisclosed
54
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
DEALS BY SUBSECTOR
Top 5 Deals: Indoor Agriculture
Company Funding Date Raised Stage Investors
AeroFarms 12/10/2015 $20M Series B
GSR Ventures,Middleland Capital,
MissionPoint Capital Partners, Wheatsheaf
Group
Illumitex 8/11/2015 $16M Series C
Apex Venture Partners,Morgan Creek Capital
Management,Mousse Partners,New
Enterprise Associates, SyngentaVentures,
WPGlobal Partners
BrightFarms 11/6/2015 $14M Series B
Emil Capital Partners, NGEN Partners,WP
Global Partners
Harvest Urban Farms 9/10/2015 $3M Seed Wall Financial
UrbanFarmers 4/1/2015 $2M Series A Undisclosed
55
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
DEALS BY SUBSECTOR
Top 5 Deals: Sustainable Protein
Company Funding Date Raised Stage Investors
Impossible Foods 10/6/2015 $108M Series D
Horizons Ventures,Innovative Fund,Khosla
Ventures,UBS, Viking Global Investors, Bill
Gates
RosaLabs (formerly Solyent) 1/14/2015 $20M Series A
Andreessen Horowitz,Index Ventures,David
Friedberg,Lerer Hippeau Ventures
Beyond Meat 10/15/2015 $17M Series E Innovative Fund,Obvious Ventures
Ripple Foods 12/4/2015 $14M Series A Undisclosed
Clara Foods 7/9/2015 $2M Seed
SOSV,Indie Bio, Ali Partovi, David Friedberg,
Gary Hirshberg,Hadi Partovi,Scott Banister
56
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
DEALS BY SUBSECTOR
Top 5 Deals: Waste Tech
Company Funding Date Raised Stage Investors
Fulcrum Bioenergy 7/1/2015 $30M Series C United Airlines
Harvest Power 11/23/2015 $20M
Series D
(extension)
Generation Investment Management,Industry
Ventures,True North Venture Partners
OrganicaWater 7/21/2015 $9M Series C
Electranova Capital, Gamma Capital Partners,
Idinvest Partners, International Finance
Corporation, XPV Capital
WISErg 3/24/2015 $7M Series B Second Avenue Partners,
OstaraNutrient Recovery
Technologies
6/11/2015 $5M Equity Undisclosed
57
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
CITATIONS
Introduction
[1] Crunchbase
[2] AgTech Investing Report: Year In Review 2014, AgFunder
Sources
[1] Crunchbase
[2] Edgar Company Filings, Securities and Exchange Commission
Five Standout Themes for 2015’s
[1] AgTech Investing Report: Year In Review 2014, AgFunder
[2] Venture Pulse: Q4 Global analysis of venture funding, KPMG
[3] Plunkett’s Food Industry Almanac Market Research, Plunkett Research
[4] The World Fact Book, Central Intelligence Agency
[5] Global Healths new entrants: Meeting the world’s consumer, PWC
[6] Farmers Flying Drones May Soon Be Given Clearance, New York Times
[7] Global Competitiveness Report 2014-2015, World Economic Forum
Deal Volume and Activity by Quarter
[1] AgTech Investing Report: Year In Review 2014, AgFunder
Annual Financing 2010 – 2015
[1] i3 Quarterly Innovation Monitor: Agriculture & Food (Q4|2014), Cleantech
Group
[2] AgTech Investing Report: Year In Review 2014, AgFunder
[3] BASF Buys Becker for $1Billion to Boost Crop Unit, Bloomberg
[4] Monsanto Pays $1 Billion For Big Data Company , Business Insider
[5] AgTech Investing Report: Mid Year Report 2015, AgFunder
AgTech Subsector Breakdown
[1] AgTech Investing Report: Year In Review 2014, AgFunder
Median Deal Size
[1] AgTech Investing Report: Year In Review 2014, AgFunder
Precision Ag Subsector Breakdown
[1] AgTech Investing Report: Year In Review 2014, AgFunder
Spotlight on Precision Ag: Top 20 Deals
[1] Planet Labs to Acquire RapidEye, Planet Labs
Spotlight on Precision Ag: Investors in 2+ Deals
[1] AgTech Investing Report: Year In Review 2014, AgFunder
[2] Monsanto Pays $1 Billion For Big Data Company , Business Insider
[3] Monsanto nabs Chicago big-data startup 640 Labs, Chicago Business
Snapshot: Top 20 Food Ecommerce Deals
[1] AgTech Investing Report: Mid Year Report 2015, AgFunder
[2] More Money For India’s On-Demand Economy, TechCrunch
Deal Volume and Activity by Stage
[1] AgTech Investing Report: Year In Review 2014, AgFunder
Deal Average and Median by Stage
[1] 2014 Startup Traction Report, Mattermark
Deal Amount by Stage (2014 vs 2015)
[1] AgTech Investing Report: Year In Review 2014, AgFunder
Global Investment: Number of Deals by Country
[1] AgTech Investing Report: Year In Review 2014, AgFunder
Top 20 International Venture Deals (Excluding U.S.)
[1] AgTech Investing Report: Year In Review 2014, AgFunder
Median Round Size of Investors with 4+ Deals
[1] AgTech Investing Report: Year In Review 2014, AgFunder
58
AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM
AgFunder is an online investment platform for AgTech.
We help Accredited and Institutional Investors discover & invest in developing
technologies to transform the agriculture industry.
Learn more @ www.agfunder.com Contact us @ media@agfunder.com
Last updated February 16,2016
59

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Agtech Investment Surges in 2015

  • 1. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM AGTECH INVESTING REPORT 2015 INTRODUCTION
  • 2. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM DISCLOSURE Opinions and estimates offered constitute our judgment and are subject to change without notice, as are statements of financial market trends, which are based on current market conditions. We believe the information provided here is reliable, but do not warrant its accuracy or completeness. This material is not intended as an offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any financial instrument. The views and strategies described may not be suitable for all investors. This material has beenprepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, accounting, legal, tax advice, or investment matters and are advised to consult their own professional advisers.. References to future returns are not promises or even estimates of actual returns a client portfolio may achieve. Any forecasts contained herein are for illustrative purposes only and are not to be relied upon as advice or interpreted as a recommendation. North CapitalPrivate Securities and AgFunder do not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Any discussion in this document of past or proposed outcomes should not be relied upon as any indication of future outcomes. 2
  • 3. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM AGTECH INVESTING REPORT 2015 INTRODUCTION What a year 2015 was for food and agriculture technology. The year saw 499 companies attract $4.6 billion of investment across 526 rounds of financing[1], far surpassing our initial expectations for the year, and nearly doubling 2014 figures ($2.36bn)[2]. Although food ecommerce dominated the sector for 2015, with $1.65 billion of investment, the rest of the sector still attracted >$2.9 billion of investment[1]; far outpacing 2014, which saw $1.9 billion in non-food ecommerce deals[2]. Of that $2.9 billion, diversity was the name of the game as the year’s largest deals came from three different categories: sustainable protein (Impossible Foods $100m), drones & robotics (DJI $75m), and decision support technology (Planet Labs $123m)[1]. Gone are the days when agtech encompassed simply seed genetics and biofuels. Today, agtech is being driven by a confluence of technologies: ubiquitous mobile computing that de-tethers computing from the desktop and brings technology outdoors and to industrial environments; inexpensive energy storage and capture to run these devices; sophisticated sensors to automate data gathering; drones & robotics that can operate in complex outdoor environments; digital imagery; inexpensive and efficient LEDs; and big data analysis & new advances in artificial intelligence that help make sense of it all. We continue to believe that agriculture industry is proving to be an excellent first market for many of the most exciting technology developments because there are still so many problems to solve. AgFunder is an online investment platform for food and agriculture technology. We help accredited and institutional investors discover & invest in technologies which transform the agriculture industry. Learn more @ www.agfunder.com Authors: Louisa Burwood-Taylor, Rob Leclerc, and Melissa Tilney. Design: Simona Barta Still on our mission to feed 10bn by 2050! Rob Leclerc, AgFunder CEO
  • 4. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM Data Sources Data for 2014 and 2015 was provided by CrunchBase[1] and supplemented with private communications with investors. Data Limitations Because the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires companies to publicly file their financings with the SEC, there may be many more non-U.S. companies that receive financing, but which are absent from our analysis. UndisclosedFinancings Of the 526 financings in our curated data set,83 had undisclosed financings which could not be determined through SEC filings[2] or direct sources. We excluded undisclosed financings when we computed averages and median values. In some cases, we were able to obtain financing figures directly from the the investors, on the condition that they only be included in the aggregate figures. Multiple Financings In some cases, CrunchBase displayed multiple financings for the same company in the same year. In the case of discrete series (Seed, A, B,…) of financings or asset classes (debt vs equity), we counted these as separate rounds. In the case where a company raised capital two or more times in the same round, we aggregated the total financing into the largest financing for that round. SpecialAcknowledgement Special thanks to Tim Li and the rest of the CrunchBase team for their support and assistance. Sources SOURCES 4
  • 5. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM CATEGORIZATION Category Descriptions AnimalHealth& Nutrition: we only include companies that identify agricultural livestock as a key market. (Miscellaneous). Biomaterials & Biochemicals include companies using biological materialtoproduce/farm: peptides,bioplastics,non-ag inputs, microorganisms,pharmaceuticals,microbes and algae,functional ingredients/nutrients/phytoceuticals.While it could technically fall into this category,we split bioenergy out due tothe high volumes of investment in this segment. Cannabis Technology companies developing technologies for the cannabis market. (Miscellaneous) Decision Support Techis our software-focused category encompassing the large majority of precision agriculture technologies, excluding those in drones & robotics, and smart equipment & hardware. Itincludes satellite data companies,big data,and ERPtechnologies. Drones & Robotics companies are those that are building drones or robotic technologies which have self identified food and agriculture as a key market. Farm-2-Consumer companies are those that directly deliver food to consumers from farms,differing from food e-commerce,which involves e-grocers,mealkit delivery services,and specialist meal delivery. (Miscellaneous) Food E-Commercee-grocers,mealkit delivery,and specialist meal services. Excludes restaurant delivery which has less of a disruptive effect on the agriculture value chain. Foodtechis a broad category including food processing,food enhancing technology (e.g. flavor or nutritional value), packaging, food analysis. Food Safety & Traceability includes allcompanies attempting to track food production,food sterilization or introduce technologies that reduce the risk of food safety concerns. Indoor Agriculture includes all farming operations that occur indoors or in a greenhouse,and the technologies that accompany them. It does not include Cannabis-related tech,whichis spun out into its owncategory. Irrigation& Water techincludes all technologies involving the management of water for agriculture. Some precisionirrigation companies could technically fall into smart equipment or decision support tech, but we felt that this categorizationwould be more informative. Smart Equipment & Hardware predominantly includes sensor technology, Internet of Things (IoT),and other non-robotic machinery. Soil & Crop Technology includes: biological inputs and treatments, chemicalinputs, genetics–basedtech,new crops,seed technology. Sustainable Proteincompanies are those looking toreplace traditionalsources of proteinsuch as meat and eggs. These companies are mainly using plant proteins tocreate product. Waste techincludes any products made out of food waste, wastewater treatment facilities and technology,and waste mitigationtechnologies. (Miscellaneous) 5
  • 6. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM YEAR IN REVIEW 6
  • 7. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM 672 Unique Investors 526 Deals $4.6B Invested OVERVIEW2015 7
  • 8. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM 1. Agtech surpasses expectations; is there a bubble? The $4.6 billion that was raised in 2015 is nearly double 2014’s $2.36 billion total[1], and outpaced growth in the broader venture capital market[2]. Annual global financing of VC-backed companies grew 78% in 2014 on 2013 levels, and a further 44% in 2015, according to the Venture Pulse Report 2015[2]. By comparison, agtech investment grew 166% in 2014[1] and 92% for 2015. This rapid growth against the backdrop of a frothy market raises the question: is agtech in a bubble? While we think that the food e-commerce sector continues to be overheated against a backdrop of questionable unit economics and increasing competition, we believe that much of the rest of the market is still facing financing challenges not seen in other mainstream technology sectors. Indeed,outside of food e-commerce, we see very few deals of over $50 million in size and agtech dedicated funds are still relatively few and small in size. Another way to sanity check the market is to compare agtech investment with the global agriculture market. In 2015, global agriculture represented about 10% of global GDP[3] ($7.8 trillion). That means that agtech investment is less than 0.5% of the entire agriculture market. Moreover, total agtech investment is <3.5% of the $128.5 billion invested in venture backed companies in 2015[2] – which seems small for a sector responsible for 10% of GDP. By comparison, health care represents about 12% of global GDP[4,5] and received nearly 12% of total venture funding last year[2]; that’s over three times the total investment in agtech. 2. The sky’s the limit for drones & robotics In contrast to food e-commerce, drones & robotics can take human labor out of the equation, and have enormous potential improve operating margins. The 237% increase in investment on 2014 volumes to $389 million in 2015 reflects a bullish investor sentiment. Drones made up the vast majority of this total with DJI’s $75 million Series B and 3D Robotics’ $50 million Series C listed in the year’s top 15 equity deals across the whole sector. Questions were raised in 2015 around the efficacy of drones for agriculture, such as the time taken to process and analyze images, and the manpower needed to launch and ground- truth the findings. While 80% of UAVs will be used for precision ag in the near future[6], more progress needs to be made in the technology attached to drones before this segment will create real efficiencies for farmers. FiveStandout Themes for 2015 THEMES 8
  • 9. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM In robotics, Blue River Technologies, a Californian startup using computer vision and machine learning to weed crops, raised $17 million in Series B funding. Investors included agtechVC heavyweights Syngenta Ventures, Monsanto Growth Ventures, and Pontifax Global Food and Agriculture Technology Fund, as well as big name VCs Khosla Ventures and Innovation Endeavors. But despite this impressive line-up, it was one of very few robotics startups to raise funding (5 out of 26 deals). Some investors are concerned that robotics companies are too capital intensive compared to software companies, and that hardware is easier to copy and expensive to distribute. But as global technology giants increasingly turn their corporate venturing arms towards agriculture – think Yamaha, Intel and Verizon – this segment could attract more funding in 2016. 3. Biologicals dug in with $120m Companies manufacturing biological inputs such as biopesticides, biofertilizers, and soil amendments, largely dominated this year’s soil & crop technology segment raising $120 million across 20 deals. This represents 71% of the subsector’s $168 million total, leaving seed tech and ag genetics companies to make up the remaining 29%. The growth in the number of biological solutions for farmers coincides with increasing emphasis among entrepreneurs, farmers and consumers globally on improving soil health; pursuing sustainable farming practices; and reducing the use of chemical inputs. Biologicals attracted a swathe deep-pocketed investors including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The University of Texas Investment Management Company, Sequoia Capital, and the corporate venturing arms of agribusiness giants Monsanto and Syngenta. As awareness of the importance of soil health increases, particularly with global climate change talks gathering pace, we believe that a growing numbers of environmentally-aware farmers and organic-eating consumers will keep this segment on an upward trajectory. 4. Precision agriculture continues to gather pace While it’s still early days for the precision agriculture technology industry – some have likened it to the internet in the 1990s – the segment continues to attract many of the biggest deals. In our spotlight below we classify precision ag companies as those aiming to bring efficiencies to the farm – whether through inputs, time or labor – and primarily draw from the categories of decision support technologies, irrigation & water, drones & robotics, and smart equipment & hardware. During the year, some 84 precision ag companies raised $661 million across 96 deals with some coming to the market twice for funding. FiveStandout Themes for 2015 THEMES 9
  • 10. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM FiveStandout Themes for 2015 THEMES The sheer volume of capital coming into the subsector raised some eyebrows in the industry, particularly as data integration and standardization remain issues. This has arguably made it challenging for some companies in this space to raise funding from new investors. 5. Increasing geographic diversity Companies based in the United States raised just over half of agtech’s total global funding during the year, taking in $2.4 billion. By number of deals, this was 58% of the year’s activity, which is much lower than the 90% share in 2014[1]. We attribute this not only to increased investment in international deals, but also increased reporting by international companies and the continued globalization of private capital markets. Israel asserted its runner-up status in agtech innovation with companies collecting nearly $550 million over the year. The country has also climbed the Global Competitiveness Index to rank third in its capacity for innovation, third for the world’s best research institutions, and ninth in the availability of venture capital[7]. Innovations from emerging markets India and China took the third ($506m) and fourth slot ($480m) in our geographical rankings respectively. While the vast majority of deals were in Food e-commerce, the two countries are home to leaders in the irrigation space and in the drones space — India’s Jain Irrigation ($120m) and China’s DJI ($75m). With the urgent need for agricultural innovation in both countries, India and China may be well positioned as agtech centers in the coming years. 10
  • 11. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM DEAL ACTIVITY BY QUARTER # Deals Financing | $Millions $467 $416 $509 $969 $1,254 $933 $1,129 $1,257 55 78 67 64 153 132 129 112 2014-Q1 2014-Q2 2014-Q3 2014-Q4 2015-Q1 2015-Q2 2015-Q3 2015-Q4 Deal Volume and Activity by Quarter[1] 11
  • 12. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM There was a step-change in agtech investment activity in 2013 when it jumped 75% year-over-year to $900 million. This activity followed some successful exits in the biologicals arena in 2012 such as when German chemical company BASF acquired seed treatment company Becker Underwood for $1 billion[3]. But it was The Climate Corporation’s $1 billion exit to Monsanto at the end of 2013[4] that really breathed life into the sector and 2014 investment volumes reached $2.36 billion. 2015 has now completely eclipsed these figures, as we report a 94% increase on 2014 volumes[1], and surpassing our mid-year expected run rate of $4.1 billion[2]. $0.4 $0.5 $0.5 $0.9 $2.4 $4.6 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Annual Financing 2010– 2015[1,2] DEAL ACTIVITY BY QUARTER Financing | $Billions 12
  • 13. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM DEALS BY SUBSECTOR 13
  • 14. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM 36% 15%8% 7% 6% 4% 4% 4% 2% 2% 12% Food Ecommerce Irrigation & Water Drones & Robotics Bioenergy Decision Support Technology Biomaterials & Biochemicals Soil & Crop Technology SustainableProtein Foodtech Food Safety & Traceability MiscellaneousOther 2015AgTech Investment Subsector Breakdown DEALS BY SUBSECTOR % of Total Investment Dollars Food e-commerce (excludes restaurant delivery) startups raised $1.65 billion in 2015, an >300% increase from 2014[1] ($370m) as the subsector overtook bioenergy for the top spot. We saw an increase in Irrigation & Water technology investment in the first half of the year with a few large deals pushing up the total. Technologies in the ‘miscellaneous’ category absorbed 12 percent of the total funding for the year as the diversity of startups in the sector rapidly increased on 2014 levels. The largest deals in this category were from Iron Planet ($55m), an online marketplace for heavy equipment, and Ginkgo Bioworks ($45m), an organism engineering company. Drones & robotics and decision support tech both increased their portion of the pie with 8% and 6% respectively, while bioenergy sank to 7% in 2015 from 16% in 2014[1] as the sector faces headwinds from dwindling oil prices. 14
  • 15. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM 137 22 42 19 46 23 35 7 24 19 19 19 20 35 12 22 25 137 22 42 19 46 23 35 7 24 19 19 19 20 35 12 22 25 $1,653 $673 $383 $305 $295 $190 $168 $160 $110 $95 $91 $77 $70 $68 $50 $26 $159 Food Ecommerce Irrigation & Water Drones & Robotics Bioenergy Decision Support Technology Biomaterials & Biochemicals Soil & Crop Technology Sustainable Protein Foodtech Food Safety & Traceability Waste Tech Indoor Agriculture Farm to Consumer Cannabis Animal Nutrition & Health Smart Equipment & Hardware Miscellaneous The Food e-commerce and irrigation & water technology categories were both outliers in 2015 raising a collective $2.2 billion across 159 deals. Besides these subsectors, companies tended to raise capital in three groups: under $400 million, under $200 million and under $90 million. By number of deals, excluding food e- commerce, decision support technology was most active with 46 deals. The dealsizes in this segment were still relatively small indicating the immaturity of companies in this space, although they still raised $295 million. Drones & robotics startups, also largely used for precision agriculture, raised $383 million across 42 deals. Deal Volume and Activity by Subsector DEALS BY SUBSECTOR Financing | $Millions # Deals 15
  • 16. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM Median deals sizes were still quite low in 2015 and followed a similar trend within the subsectors. Four investment rounds above $10 million from Rosa Labs (formerly Soylent), Beyond Meat and Ripple Foods meant the median for the Sustainable Protein subsector remained high, as venture capital firms continue to place big bets in a sector that promises to disrupt the meat and egg industry. The median was lower than in 2014 when it was $23 million[1]. The median sizes for hardware and software categories – drones & robotics and decision support tech – remained low as these sectors are still in their infancy. Median Deal Size DEALS BY SUBSECTOR Financing | $Millions $15.3 $10.0 $4.0 $3.2 $3.0 $3.0 $2.4 $2.1 $2.0 $2.0 $1.8 $1.5 $1.4 $1.3 $0.8 $0.6 $2.3 Sustainable Protein Bioenergy Farm to Consumer Food Safety & Traceability Irrigation & Water Waste Tech Animal Nutrition & Health Drones & Robotics Indoor Agriculture Biomaterials & Biochemicals Soil & Crop Technology Decision Support Technology Foodtech Food Ecommerce Cannabis Smart Equipment & Hardware Miscellaneous 16
  • 17. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM 167 Unique Investors 96 Deals $661M Invested Precision Ag 17
  • 18. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM Precision ag continued to attract more venture dollars in 2015, increasing 140% from 2014[1] ($276m). Precision ag companies were primarily drawn from top level categories of drones & robotics, decision support technologies, irrigation & water, and smart equipment & hardware. For this spotlight we’ve taken a more granular approach, grouping companies either by technology (drones, hardware & sensors, robotics, satellite & imagery, software) or application (irrigation, weather). Following new FAA rules that provided more guidance for commercial drones, drone companies saw $328 million of funding, capturing 237% more investment than in 2014[1], and 49% of the total funding in precision ag. Drones captured nine of the top 20 financings in precision ag. Precision AgSubsector Breakdown SPOTLIGHT PRECISION AGRICULTURE % of Total Investment Dollars 49% 27% 11% 6% 4% 3% 1% Drones Satellite &Imagery Software Robotics Irrigation Hardware & Sensors Weather 18
  • 19. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM $123.0 $75.0 $64.0 $42.0 $35.2 $27.0 $24.5 $23.5 $21.2 $21.1 $17.7 $17.0 $15.0 $11.0 $10.0 $9.0 $9.0 $8.8 $8.7 $8.3 Planet Labs DJI 3D Robotics Ehang Parrot Skycatch CyPhy Works Clearpath Robotics Pulse Aerospace Granular Conservis Blue River Technology Farmers Business Network Swift Navigation Mavrx CropX DroneDeploy Intermap Technologies Orbital Insight,Inc. Intelescope Solutions Spotlight on Precision Ag: Top 20 Deals SPOTLIGHT PRECISION AGRICULTURE Financing | $Millions As precision agriculture companies increasingly combine insights from a variety of sources, satellite imagery gathered pace as a decision support tool, capturing 25% of precision ag funding ($166m). While most satellite companies offer field- level crop health information, others are using historic data to make yield predictions. Planet Labs,which raised a $123 million Series C ($93m equity, $25m debt),acquired RapidEye[1], which has five multispectral satellites that can assist in monitoring vegetation health and measuring biomass across a number of metrics. Precision ag software also saw some large deals throughout the year, including Granular ($21m), Conservis ($17.7m), Farmer’s Business Network ($15m), Farmobile ($5.5m), and an unreported round by Farmer’s Edge which announced a $41m round in January 2016. In total, 19 precision ag software companies raised capital. 19
  • 20. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM 0 1 2 3 Lux Capital Data Collective Innovation Endeavors Eclipse Monsanto Growth Ventures Syngenta Ventures Crosslink Capital Techstars Industry Ventures Space Angels Network GV Pontifax AgTech ff Venture Capital Cultivian Sandbox Ventures Verizon Ventures CapAgro Serra Ventures lool ventures Mitsui & Co Qualcomm Incorporated SOSV In 2014 we recorded 13 investors who invested in two or more precision ag deals[1]. For 2015, this jumped to 21 investors. Monsanto Growth Ventures and Syngenta Ventures (which may be feeling some heat after Monsanto acquired Climate Corporation in 2013 for nearly $1 billion[2]) led the agtech-focused VCs with three deals apiece. Monsanto invested in HydroBio, Blue River Technology, and VitalFields, while Syngenta invested in Planet Labs,Blue River Technology, and Phytech. Illinois-based Serra Ventures, which invested in three companies last year and saw an exit with 640 Labs[3], made another three in 2015 including Agrible – in which they first invested in 2014 – and two rounds in Oso Technologies, which is developing a plant soil sensor. Spotlight on Precision Ag: Investors in 2+Deals SPOTLIGHT PRECISION AGRICULTURE Number of Deals 20
  • 21. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM 44 Unique Investors 35 Deals $168M Invested Soil CropTech 21
  • 22. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM $34.5 $10.3 $10.0 $7.3 $7.3 $6.1 $5.6 $5.0 $3.0 $2.4 $1.2 $1.0 $1.0 $.8 AgBiome Origene Seeds Phagelux AgriMetis Benson Hill Biosystems PlantResponse Biotech LemnaTec Metabolon Asilomar Bio Exosect Weeding Technologies Eden Shield Provivi Inocucor Technologies Ceradis SPOTLIGHT SOIL & CROP TECHNOLOGIES While precision ag has captured the agtech spotlight the past few years, high-profile agtech investors and top-tier VCs are still investing heavily in the Soil & Crop technology (see next page). This was particularly true for biologicals, which do not suffer the same stigma as GMO or chemicals and can achieve organic certification. AgBiome, which has produced its first product to control soil-borne diseases, raised the largest soil & crop tech venture capital dealof the year in a $34.5 million Series B. The company got a particular boost as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation invested alongside leading agtechVCs Monsanto Growth Ventures, Syngenta Ventures and Pontifax Food and Agriculture Technology Fund. Spotlight on Soil & Crop Tech: Top 15 VC Deals Financing | $Millions 22 UNDISCLOSED
  • 23. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM $34.5 $10.3 $10.0 $7.3 $7.3 $6.1 $5.6 $5.0 $3.0 AgBiome Origene Seeds Phagelux AgriMetis Benson Hill Biosystems PlantResponse Biotech LemnaTec Metabolon Asilomar Bio Ceradis SPOTLIGHT SOIL & CROP TECHNOLOGIES Financing | $Millions UNDISCLOSED FALL LINE CAPITAL UNDISCLOSED Soil & Crop Technology Investors 23 UNDISCLOSED
  • 24. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM 262 Unique Investors 137 Deals $1.65B Invested Food E-Commerce 24
  • 25. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM While a few very large deals skewed the food e- commerce data,it was still an active sector with 137 companies raising $1.65 billion in 2015. Companies in the segment raised double the volumes reached in H1-2015 ($551m)[1]. Food e-commerce startups popped up all over the globe with 21 countries represented in this dataset. India was the most active region as 51 startups raised funding, vying for a piece of its $15 billion food delivery market[2]. Competition in the US was not far off as we identified 48 startups raising capital in the space. China’s Womai, a subsidiary of major Chinese agribusiness COFCO, raised the most ($200 million Series C), followed by US-based Blue Apron, the meal kit delivery company ($135m Series D). Europe’s HelloFresh was the third biggest deal in the sector with its $126 million Series E round ($211m for the year). Snapshot: Top 20 Food Ecommerce Deals SPOTLIGHT OF FOOD ECOMMERCE Financing | $Millions $200.0 $135.0 $126.0 $120.0 $85.0 $85.0 $80.0 $70.0 $70.0 $50.0 $45.0 $35.0 $35.0 $30.0 $30.0 $30.0 $30.0 $26.7 $25.1 $22.0 Womai Blue Apron HelloFresh Grofers HelloFresh Munchery Jiuxian.com Beequick Fruitday Bigbasket.com Sprig Grofers Plated Benlai Life FAASOS NatureBox Thrive Market RedMart Mathem Snap Kitchen Series F Series E Series C Series B 25
  • 26. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM DEALS BY STAGE 26
  • 27. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM $130 $786 $692 $1,083 $280 $880 $722 $10 260 123 46 27 8 32 17 14 Seed A B C D Late/ Other Debt Grant/Non-Equity Deal Volume and Activity by Stage DEALS BY STAGE #Deals Financing | $Millions Crowdfunding Series A deal activity gained ground in 2015 accounting for nearly 24% of deal flow, compared to 20% in 2014[1], as more startups matured to the later stage funding. While 2015 saw more dollars invested, it also saw more companies funded. For Seed to Series B, we saw a decline in the median and average funding rounds suggesting that many early stage agech companies continue to struggle to raise capital despite more capital entering the space. 27
  • 28. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM Deal Average and Median by Stage DEALS BY STAGE Crowdfunding Aside from seed stage which is relatively undercapitalized and Series C which was flush with food e-commerce deals, average round sizes were on the lower end, but similar, to those recorded by Mattermark for the U.S. venture capital industry[1]. Mattermark reported that H1 averages for seed stage deals were $1.3-1.6 million (vs. $660k average, $400k median); Series A: $7- 9 million (vs $7m average, $5m median); Series B: $18 million (vs $16.5m, $13.7m median); Series C: $23-30 million (vs $41.6m average, $30m median). Median | $ Millions Average | $Millions $0.66 $7 $16 $42 $40 $29 $42 $0.84 $0.40 $5 $14 $30 $6 $11 $9 $0.10 Seed A B C D Late/ Other Debt Grant/Non-Equity 28
  • 29. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM DEALS BY STAGE $82 $419 $349 $617 $299 $424 $171 $130 $786 $683 $1,083 $280 $890 $722 Seed A B C D Late/ Other Debt Deal Volume, 2014 |$Millions Deal Volume, 2015 |$Millions Deals By Stage 2014vs2015 29
  • 30. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM Seed stage deals once again dominated the year in terms of deal activity with 49% of deal flow. This indicates that agtech is growing as a sector of focus for entrepreneurs, and providing a broad pipeline of companies for later stage VCs in 2016. Food e-commerce deals were the most numerous at this stage (82). Skyward, a drone company, raised the year’s largest seed deal. Decision support tech startups followed with 21 deals, including satellite imagery company Descartes Labs raising $3.3 million. Drones & robotics companies raised funding across 20 deals. Geographically the U.S. was the most active country at seed stage (140) followed by India (39). Top 20 Seed Deals DEALS BY STAGE $4.1 $3.3 $3.3 $3.2 $3.0 $3.0 $3.0 $3.0 $2.7 $2.1 $2.1 $2.0 $2.0 $2.0 $2.0 $1.9 $1.8 $1.8 $1.8 $1.8 Skyward Keenan Recycling Descartes Labs Intelligent Wireless Networks Harvest Urban Farms Knock Mart PowWow Energy Yumist Naio Technologies Edyn GrubMarket Inc Back to the Roots Bright Cellars DroneViewTechnologies ZuperMeal Biosyntia Satvacart GreenIQ My Table Clara Foods Financing | $Millions 30
  • 31. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM While Food e-commerce companies largely dominated Series A rounds in terms of size, there were some impressive deals across a range of subsectors with no clear trend. Of the companies that progressed to Series A during the year, Zymergen, a company bringing robotic automation, proprietary software, and deep computer analytics to farm and harvest materials from microbes raised the largest round. Next came Thrive Market, the online, affordable healthy food delivery service, and Mathem, Sweden’s largest online grocery. Aside from food–commerce plays, Innit ($25m), a company using machine learning to create cooking systems, and Clearpath Robotics ($23m), which is building unmanned vehicle robots, raised the largest Series A deals. Top 20 Series A Deals DEALS BY STAGE Financing | $Millions 31 $44.0 $30.0 $25.1 $25.0 $23.5 $22.0 $21.2 $20.0 $19.6 $17.7 $16.6 $15.5 $15.1 $15.0 $15.0 $13.6 $13.6 $12.0 $11.0 $11.0 Zymergen Thrive Market Mathem Innit Clearpath Robotics Snap Kitchen Pulse Aerospace RosaLabs Zesty Undisclosed MinnesotaMedical Solutions Green Chef Sohan Lal Commodity Mgmt 1mxians honestbee Shopwings Ripple Foods HappyFresh Eaze Swift Navigation
  • 32. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM 75.0 45.0 45.0 42.0 35.0 35.0 34.5 22.0 22.0 22.0 22.0 21.1 20.0 20.0 17.0 16.0 16.0 15.0 15.0 13.7 DJI Ginkgo Bioworks Sprig Ehang Grofers Plated AgBiome CyPhy Works Nomacorc Skycatch Vayyar Granular AeroFarms Beequick Blue River Technology FAASOS Farmigo Farmers Business Network Yummly BrightFarms Top 20 Series B Deals DEALS BY STAGE Financing | $Millions Chinese drone company DJI raised the largest Series B in what was one of the biggest deals of the year across all segments and stages. It was a particularly big year for the company’s ag market after it launched its first drone designed specifically for agriculture, the Agras MG- 1 crop sprayer. Ginkgo Bioworks, an organism engineering company, raised $45 million, as did Sprig, a healthy food e-commerce company. Grofers, one of India’s more established e-grocers, raised its Series A ($10m), B ($35m) and C ($120m) round all in 2015, taking its total funding to $166 million. 32
  • 33. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM DEALS BY GEOGRAPHY 33
  • 34. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM US companies accounted for 58% of 2015’s total deal flow. This is a drop from 2014[1] when the US represented 90% of deal activity. This dramatic change in activity levels reflects not only increased investment in international deals, but likely an increase in reporting by international issuers that are taking a more global view of their companies and are seeking to attract the attention of international investors. Top 10 investment destinations were US (303), India (64), Canada (25), UK (19), Israel (15), France (11), Germany (10), China, Netherlands (8), Switzerland (7), Australia (6). Global Investment: Number of Deals by Country DEALS BY GEOGRAPHY 3031 #Deals Funded Log Scale 34
  • 35. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM $200.0 $126.0 $120.0 $85.0 $80.0 $75.0 $70.0 $70.0 $50.0 $42.0 $35.2 $35.0 $30.0 $30.0 $26.7 $25.1 $23.5 $22.0 $20.0 $17.7 Womai HelloFresh Grofers HelloFresh Jiuxian.com DJI Beequick Fruitday Bigbasket.com Green Biologics Parrot Grofers Benlai Life FAASOS RedMart Mathem Clearpath Robotics Vayyar Beequick Nutresia Top 20 International Venture Deals (Excluding U.S.) Financing | $Millions Undisclosed Asian companies lead the international scoreboard this year, repeating a trend seen in 2014[1]. Three food delivery companies in China raised particularly large rounds (Womai, $200m, Jiuxian.com $80m and Fruitday $70m), as did India’s Grofers ($120m) and BigBasket.com ($50m) and Japan’s Beequick ($70m). Germany’s HelloFresh interrupted this trend by raising two rounds during the year ($85m Series E, $126m Series F). After China’s DJI,Green Biologics from the UK was the largest non food e-commerce deal as the bio-based renewable chemicals company raised a $42m Series C. Australia was noticeably absent from the international leader board this year and Canada, which had 25 companies funded, appeared just once compared to seven deals in the top 20 in 2014[1]. DEALS BY GEOGRAPHY 35
  • 36. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM Top 20 U.S. Venture Deals Financing | $Millions $135.0 $108.0 $93.0 $85.0 $85.0 $64.0 $50.0 $45.0 $45.0 $44.0 $42.0 $40.0 $35.0 $34.5 $30.0 $30.0 $30.0 $28.6 $25.0 $23.0 Blue Apron Impossible Foods Planet Labs HelloFresh Munchery 3D Robotics Premise Ginkgo Bioworks Sprig Zymergen Ehang Joule Unlimited Plated AgBiome Fulcrum Bioenergy NatureBox Thrive Market Rheonix Innit Agrivida US agtech startups raised $2.2 billion in 2015, nearly half of all global investment, reflecting the country’s technical and financial lead across many subsectors. Food e-commerce led venture deals in the US, with meal kit delivery company Blue Apron raising $135 million at Series D and HelloFresh raising $126 million at Series E. Sustainable protein company Impossible Foods raised $108 million at Series C reflecting the US’s leadership in this space as increasing numbers of options come to market. Planet Labs’ $93 million Series C (Not including $25m of venture debt) also highlights the US activity in satellite data capture. We expect to see more companies in this segment raise funding in 2016. DEALS BY GEOGRAPHY 36
  • 37. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM U.S. Investment: Number of Deals by State DEALS BY GEOGRAPHY While California predictably leads other states in the US for agriculture innovation (31% of deals), this proportion shrunk from 46% in 2014, as a growing number of alternative agtech innovation hubs pop up across the country. Initiatives, such as accelerator programs and incubators, in parts of the Midwest and on the east coast are helping to increase the level of investment activity in those regions. Top 10 investment destinations were California (96), New York (34), Massachusetts (25), Colorado (25), North Carolina (11), Missouri, Oregon, Washington (9), Texas, Illinois (8), Florida (7), Minnesota, Pennsylvania (6), New Mexico (5). 3031 #Deals Funded Log Scale 37
  • 38. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM U.S. Investment: Dollar Value of Deals by State DEALS BY GEOGRAPHY Financing | $Millions $1,247.5 $483.0 $213.1 $75.8 $72.4 $54.5 $27.3 $26.7 $21.0 $19.7 $17.4 $13.7 $13.4 $13.0 $11.0 $9.9 $9.9 $8.3 $7.4 $5.5 California New York Massachusetts North Carolina Colorado Texas Minnesota Kansas Illinois Missouri Nebraska Oregon New Mexico Maryland Washington Florida New Jersey Connecticut Michigan Pennsylvania While its portion of deal activity fell in 2015, California was still by far the busiest state for agtech investment activity with $1.25 billion raised across 96 deals. New York overtook Illinois and Colorado to become the second most active hub for agtech investment as $483 million worth of funding across 34 deals took place there during 2015. Massachusetts, namely Boston, was another increasingly active region for agtech funding as $213 million was raised across 25 deals. 38
  • 39. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM INVESTOR ACTIVITY 39
  • 40. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM 548 81 22 9 7 2 3 1 1 x1 x2 x3 x4 x5 x6 x7 x10 x11 Number of Deals by Investors INVESTOR ACTIVITY #Investors Overall deal activity grew for many venture capital firms, particularly those focused on agtech. Early stage venture firm Sequoia Capital scored the most deals in 2015. All of them were in food e- commerce as the firm invested into multiple rounds of companies in India and Japan. SOSV, the accelerator VC, was not far behind with 10 seed stage deals across a range of subsectors including Clara Foods, the sustainable protein company which raised $1.75 million, Booster, a very early stage ag data play, and Sothic Bioscience, a biotech company. Of the agtechheavyweights, Syngenta Ventures and Middleland led the pack with seven deals each. While Khosla Ventures, which invested in 10 agtech deals in 2014, did just three in 2015. 40
  • 41. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 Sequoia Capital SOSV Syngenta Ventures Middleland Capital Techstars Monsanto Growth Ventures The Yield Lab Data Collective Accel Cultivian Sandbox Ventures CapAgro Anterra Capital 500 Startups GreenSoil Investments Bessemer Venture Partners Felicis Ventures AME Cloud Ventures Innovation Endeavors e.ventures Formation 8 Pontifax AgTech Serra Ventures gener8tor FOOD-X Investors with4+ Deals INVESTOR ACTIVITY Deal activity from agtech-focused VCs gathered pace in 2015 with Syngenta Ventures, Monsanto Growth Ventures and Middleland Capital all investing in six or more deals. They invested across the agtech spectrum joining forces on deals like PlantResponse Biotech, Blue River, and AgBiome. Agtech veteran VC Cultivian Sandbox frequently invested alongside Middleland Capital (5). While Anterra Capital and CapAgro brought the European agtech industry to the league (5). Israeli-based GreenSoil invested in five Israeli agtech companies. Relative newcomer Pontifax Food and Agriculture Technology Fund started making waves in the industry with four deals. Agtech accelerator The Yield Lab also joined the party with its first cohort of six startups, investing $100k each. Number of Deals 41
  • 42. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM Bessemer Venture Partners invested in later stage deals of Series B and up, and participated in the largest median round sizes. Bessemer invested in two Food e– commerce deals (Blue Apron, $135m and BigBasket.com, $50m), as well as drones company CyPhy Works ($22m) and food safety company Vayyar ($22m). While the median deal size for agtech- focused deals was no more than half of this, a greater number of agtech VCs (10) participated into the top 20 for median rounds than in 2014 (5)[1]. Syngenta Ventures overtook Open Prairie’s $16 million median from 2014[1]. A group of the more active agtech VCs tended to invest in deals between $5-$18 million while the early stage accelerators understandably invested in deals below $1.5 million. Median Round Size of Investors with4+ Deals INVESTOR ACTIVITY Financing | $Millions $36.0 $30.0 $27.0 $27.0 $18.5 $16.0 $15.5 $12.3 $9.0 $8.4 $7.0 $6.4 $6.1 $5.5 $5.0 $4.7 $0.7 $0.7 $0.5 $0.5 $0.5 $0.10 $ $10 $20 $30 $40 Bessemer Venture Partners e.ventures Felicis Ventures AME Cloud Ventures Syngenta Ventures Sequoia Capital Formation 8 Pontifax AgTech Data Collective Middleland Capital Accel 500 Startups Monsanto Growth Ventures Anterra Capital Cultivian Sandbox Ventures CapAgro gener8tor The Yield Lab SOSV FOOD-X Serra Ventures Techstars Green Soil Investments Undisclosed 42
  • 43. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM Booster Filament AGERpoint (x2) Clara Foods Homemade Apse DTOR Inova Drone Arvegenix Green Blender Morsel Holganix Living Farm Platfarm S4 New Wave Foods Provender Terviva Prospective Research Skyfront Pynco Sothic Bioscience Limited UGo Smoothies Most ActiveAccelerators (Non-Food Ecommerce) INVESTOR ACTIVITY 43
  • 44. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM AeroFarms AgBiome AgBiome DJI Ceradis Agrivida Agrimetis Arvegenix IronPlanet Farmobile Benson Hill BIosystems Blue River Technology Blue River Technology Opinio Food Freshness Technologies Conservis Greenlight Biosciences HydroBio Teabox LemnaTec Groundwork BioAg Illumitex PlantResponse Biotech ZopNow Voltea MycoTechnology Phytech VitalFields PlantResponse Biotech Planet Labs Most ActiveVCs (Non Food E-commerce) INVESTOR ACTIVITY 44
  • 45. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM Force-A Agrivida Descartes Labs Rootility Naio Technologies Asilomar Bio DroneDeploy CropX Nutresia Conservis Ginko Bioworks Phenome Networks Olygose Descartes Labs Planet Labs Ecofer Vitfero enEvolv Zymergen BioHarvest Most ActiveVCs (Non Food E-commerce) INVESTOR ACTIVITY 45
  • 46. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM APPENDIX 46
  • 47. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM TOP 5 DEALS Top 5 Deals: Bioenergy Company Funding Date Raised Stage Investors Green Biologics 1/21/2015 $42M Series C Capricorn Venture Partners,Convergence Holdings,Morningside Technology Partners, Oxford Capital Partners,Sofinnova Partners, Swire Pacific EdeniQ 1/20/2015 $16M Series C Angeleno Group,Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ),Flint Hills Resources,I2BF Global Ventures Chromatin 1/13/2015 $12M Series F Illinois Ventures,Wood Creek Capital Management Calysta Energy 1/22/2015 $10M Series B AquaSpark, Walden Riverwood Ventures Biogenic Reagents 1/23/2015 $4M Series B Undisclosed 47
  • 48. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM Company Funding Date Raised Stage Investors Zymergen 6/16/2015 $44M Series A 5 Prime Ventures,AME Cloud Ventures,Data Collective, Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ), HVF,Innovation Endeavors,Obvious Ventures,True Ventures,Two Sigma Ventures Greenlight Biosciences 6/17/2015 $20M Series C MLS Capital Fund,SyngentaVentures,Spruce Capital Partners,Xeraya Capital Olygose 1/5/2015 $6M Series A CapAgro, EMERTEC,Vives Prairie Gold 4/29/2015 $4M Series A Undisclosed Mirexus Biotechnologies 10/8/2015 $3M Series A Asahi Kasei, Goddard Enterprises,GreenSky Capital TOP 5 DEALS Top 5 Deals: Biomaterials & Biochemicals 48
  • 49. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM TOP 5 DEALS Top 5 Deals: Crop & Soil Technology Company Funding Date Raised Stage Investors AgBiome 8/20/2015 $35M Series B Bill & MelindaGates Foundation,Pontifax AgTech,SyngentaVentures,Monsanto Growth Ventures Phagelux 6/9/2015 $10M Series A Undisclosed AgriMetis 2/13/2015 $7M Series A Acidophil, SyngentaVentures Benson Hill Biosystems 8/26/2015 $7M Series A AlexandriaVenture,Cultivation Capital, Mercury Fund,Middleland Capital,Prelude Ventures,Prolog Ventures PlantResponse Biotech 11/26/2015 $6M Series A Caixa Capital Risc, Middleland Capital,Monsanto Growth Ventures,Novozymes 49
  • 50. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM TOP 5 DEALS Top 5 Deals: Decision Support Technology Company Funding Date Raised Stage Investors Planet Labs 1/20/2015 $118M Series C& Debt AME Cloud Ventures,Capricorn Investment Group,DataCollective, DFJ,Felicis Ventures, First Round,Founders Fund,Industry Ventures,Innovation Endeavors, Lux Capital, O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures,IFC,Space Angels Network,SyngentaVentures,Western Technology Investment Premise 9/24/2015 $50M Series C Social Capital,Valor Equity Partners Granular 9/92015 $21M Series B Andreessen Horowitz,Emory Investment Management,Fall Line Capital, Google Ventures,H.Barton Asset Management, Khosla Ventures,Tao Capital Partners Farmers Business Network 5/19/2015 $15M Series B DBL Investors, Google Ventures,Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Orbital Insight 3/16/2016 $9M Series A Bloomberg Beta, Citizen.VC, Google Ventures, Lux Capital, SequoiaCapital 50
  • 51. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM TOP 5 DEALS Top 5 Deals: Drones & Robotics Company Funding Date Raised Stage Investors DJI 5/5/2015 $75M Series B Accel Partners 3D Robotics 2/25/2015 $64M Series C Atlantic Bridge,DanhuaCapital,Foundry Group,GWC,Mayfield Fund,Oreilly AlphaTech Ventures,Qualcomm Ventures,SanDisk Ventures,SheaVentures,SK Ventures,True Ventures,WestSummit Capital Ehang 8/24/2015 $42M Series B GGV Capital, GPCapital, LeBox Capital, OFC,PreAngel,ZhenFund Parrot 11/20/2015 $35M Equity BPIfrance Clearpath Robotics 10/15/2015 $23M Series A Eclipse, GE Ventures,iNoviaCapital, RRE Ventures 51
  • 52. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM TOP 5 DEALS Top 5 Deals: Farm 2 Consumer Company Funding Date Raised Stage Investors Farmigo 2015-09-15 $16M Series B Benchmark, Formation 8,Sherbrooke Capital Vital Farms 2015-12-17 $13M Equity (2 Rounds) Undisclosed GrubMarket 2015-09-18 $10M Series A AME Cloud Ventures,Battery Ventures,Fosun Capital Group,GGV Capital, Great Oaks Venture Capital,Y Combinator LaRuche qui dit Oiu 2015-06-16 $9M Series B Felix Capital,Quadia, Union Square Ventures, Xange Private Equity Door to Door Organics 2015-11-18 $4 Series C Undisclosed 52
  • 53. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM TOP 5 DEALS Top 5 Deals: Food E-commerce Company Funding Date Raised Stage Investors Womai 10/12/2015 $200M Series C Baidu, Taikang Life Insurance Blue Apron 6/9/2015 $135M Series D Aspiration Growth, Bessemer Venture Partners,BoxGroup, Fidelity Investments,First Round,Peak Opportunity Partners,Stripes Group,Jason Finger HelloFresh 2/6/2015 $126M Series E Rocket Internet Grofers 11/26/2015 $120M Series C SequoiaCapital, SoftBank, Tiger Global Management HelloFresh 9/17/2015 $85M Series F Baillie Gifford 53
  • 54. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM DEALS BY SUBSECTOR Top 5 Deals: Food Safety & Traceability Company Funding Date Raised Stage Investors Rheonix 10/20/2015 $29M Equity Advantage Capital Partners,Cayuga Venture Fund,Gefinor Capital,Limestone Capital Advisors,Onondaga Venture Capital Fund,Rand Capital Vayyar 12/15/2015 $22M Series B Amiti Ventures,Battery Ventures,Bessemer Venture Partners,Israel Cleantech Ventures (ICV),Walden Riverwood Ventures Sohan Lal Commodity Management 9/28/2015 $15M Series A Creation Investments,Everstone Clear Labs 9/15/2015 $7M Series A Felicis Ventures,HBR Genomics,Khosla Ventures,Passport Capital, Plug & Play Ventures Vivione Biosciences 11/12/2015 $4M Equity Undisclosed 54
  • 55. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM DEALS BY SUBSECTOR Top 5 Deals: Indoor Agriculture Company Funding Date Raised Stage Investors AeroFarms 12/10/2015 $20M Series B GSR Ventures,Middleland Capital, MissionPoint Capital Partners, Wheatsheaf Group Illumitex 8/11/2015 $16M Series C Apex Venture Partners,Morgan Creek Capital Management,Mousse Partners,New Enterprise Associates, SyngentaVentures, WPGlobal Partners BrightFarms 11/6/2015 $14M Series B Emil Capital Partners, NGEN Partners,WP Global Partners Harvest Urban Farms 9/10/2015 $3M Seed Wall Financial UrbanFarmers 4/1/2015 $2M Series A Undisclosed 55
  • 56. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM DEALS BY SUBSECTOR Top 5 Deals: Sustainable Protein Company Funding Date Raised Stage Investors Impossible Foods 10/6/2015 $108M Series D Horizons Ventures,Innovative Fund,Khosla Ventures,UBS, Viking Global Investors, Bill Gates RosaLabs (formerly Solyent) 1/14/2015 $20M Series A Andreessen Horowitz,Index Ventures,David Friedberg,Lerer Hippeau Ventures Beyond Meat 10/15/2015 $17M Series E Innovative Fund,Obvious Ventures Ripple Foods 12/4/2015 $14M Series A Undisclosed Clara Foods 7/9/2015 $2M Seed SOSV,Indie Bio, Ali Partovi, David Friedberg, Gary Hirshberg,Hadi Partovi,Scott Banister 56
  • 57. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM DEALS BY SUBSECTOR Top 5 Deals: Waste Tech Company Funding Date Raised Stage Investors Fulcrum Bioenergy 7/1/2015 $30M Series C United Airlines Harvest Power 11/23/2015 $20M Series D (extension) Generation Investment Management,Industry Ventures,True North Venture Partners OrganicaWater 7/21/2015 $9M Series C Electranova Capital, Gamma Capital Partners, Idinvest Partners, International Finance Corporation, XPV Capital WISErg 3/24/2015 $7M Series B Second Avenue Partners, OstaraNutrient Recovery Technologies 6/11/2015 $5M Equity Undisclosed 57
  • 58. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM CITATIONS Introduction [1] Crunchbase [2] AgTech Investing Report: Year In Review 2014, AgFunder Sources [1] Crunchbase [2] Edgar Company Filings, Securities and Exchange Commission Five Standout Themes for 2015’s [1] AgTech Investing Report: Year In Review 2014, AgFunder [2] Venture Pulse: Q4 Global analysis of venture funding, KPMG [3] Plunkett’s Food Industry Almanac Market Research, Plunkett Research [4] The World Fact Book, Central Intelligence Agency [5] Global Healths new entrants: Meeting the world’s consumer, PWC [6] Farmers Flying Drones May Soon Be Given Clearance, New York Times [7] Global Competitiveness Report 2014-2015, World Economic Forum Deal Volume and Activity by Quarter [1] AgTech Investing Report: Year In Review 2014, AgFunder Annual Financing 2010 – 2015 [1] i3 Quarterly Innovation Monitor: Agriculture & Food (Q4|2014), Cleantech Group [2] AgTech Investing Report: Year In Review 2014, AgFunder [3] BASF Buys Becker for $1Billion to Boost Crop Unit, Bloomberg [4] Monsanto Pays $1 Billion For Big Data Company , Business Insider [5] AgTech Investing Report: Mid Year Report 2015, AgFunder AgTech Subsector Breakdown [1] AgTech Investing Report: Year In Review 2014, AgFunder Median Deal Size [1] AgTech Investing Report: Year In Review 2014, AgFunder Precision Ag Subsector Breakdown [1] AgTech Investing Report: Year In Review 2014, AgFunder Spotlight on Precision Ag: Top 20 Deals [1] Planet Labs to Acquire RapidEye, Planet Labs Spotlight on Precision Ag: Investors in 2+ Deals [1] AgTech Investing Report: Year In Review 2014, AgFunder [2] Monsanto Pays $1 Billion For Big Data Company , Business Insider [3] Monsanto nabs Chicago big-data startup 640 Labs, Chicago Business Snapshot: Top 20 Food Ecommerce Deals [1] AgTech Investing Report: Mid Year Report 2015, AgFunder [2] More Money For India’s On-Demand Economy, TechCrunch Deal Volume and Activity by Stage [1] AgTech Investing Report: Year In Review 2014, AgFunder Deal Average and Median by Stage [1] 2014 Startup Traction Report, Mattermark Deal Amount by Stage (2014 vs 2015) [1] AgTech Investing Report: Year In Review 2014, AgFunder Global Investment: Number of Deals by Country [1] AgTech Investing Report: Year In Review 2014, AgFunder Top 20 International Venture Deals (Excluding U.S.) [1] AgTech Investing Report: Year In Review 2014, AgFunder Median Round Size of Investors with 4+ Deals [1] AgTech Investing Report: Year In Review 2014, AgFunder 58
  • 59. AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2015: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM AgFunder is an online investment platform for AgTech. We help Accredited and Institutional Investors discover & invest in developing technologies to transform the agriculture industry. Learn more @ www.agfunder.com Contact us @ media@agfunder.com Last updated February 16,2016 59