More than $500 million was invested in Australian AgriFoodTech start-ups last year, AgFunder's inaugural report into the sector has found, with 2022 looking to grow even more.
The inaugural Asia-Pacific AgriFoodTech Investment Report 2022, launched in Singapore by venture capital firm AgFunder, in partnership with AgriFutures growAG. and evokeAG., revealed 55 deals involving Australian startups in 2021 totalling $565.5m.
Restaurant technologies and a plant-based protein company were responsible for the three of the biggest investment deals of 2021. Melbourne-based mobile ordering and payments platform Mr Yum raised $100m, followed by V2 Foods ($83m), and cloud kitchen startup EatClub ($63m).
AgriFutures Australia senior manager growAG, Arianna Sippel, said the Asia-Pacific AgriFoodTech Investment Report demonstrated the growing maturity of the sector in Australia.
“The investment deals we’ve seen in 2021 spanned everything from eGrocery and in-store retail tech to farm management software and sensing so it shows the diversity of commercial opportunities in Australia.
“AgriFutures Australia is excited about the growth of investment in Australian agrifood tech and is focused on helping increase investment and collaboration through the grow AG. platform and evokeAG. program.
grow AG. launched in April 2021, and has more than 80,000 users, a third of which are based overseas, and has listed more than 160 commercial opportunities and 2,700 research projects.
One of the featured startups in the Asia-Pacific AgriFoodTech Investment Report, Brisbane-based farm robotics company Lyro, connected with Artesian Ventures via growAG.
Lyro reported that the connection helped lead to an investment deal with the VC. Lyro has since raised a further $US1.5m in a pre-Series A round to deliver 20 autonomous robotic packers to its agri-focused clients.
The Asia-Pacific AgriFoodTech Investment Report also indicates the outlook for agrifood tech is bright, despite the deteriorating global economic climate. Investment in Asia-Pacific agrifood tech startups set a new record in 2021 reaching $US15.2b, with this positive trajectory poised to continue.
While China has experienced a significant pullback in startup funding, the rest of the Asia-Pacific region has recorded a 15 per cent year-on-year increase in the first half of 2022, bucking a global trend.
Farm tech is also maturing with funding in the region reaching $US2.2b in 2021, double the level of 2020, driven by some large, later stage deals as well as a 17.5 per cent uptick in the number of deals year-on-year.
Michael Dean, AgFunder founding partner and Asia-Pacific head said the potential of the region was recognised early on.
“With its booming population growth and emerging centres of technology innovation, we established our GROW Accelerator and Singapore-based venture impact funds to assist institutional and corporate investors in the region to access the disruptive technologies that have the potential to drive efficiencies, profitability and sustainability for decades to come,” said Dean.
Tickets are on sale now for evokeAG. 2023 – Down to Earth, which will be held in Adelaide from February 21-22, 2023.
