Burgeoning Growth of Startup Accelerators a Boon to Sustainable Agriculture Entrepreneurs

When the Silicon Valley startup accelerator 500 Startups spawned farm production software company Farmeron late last year, sustainable agriculture officially joined the accelerator boom.  Accelerators typically take an equity stake in your startup in return for which you get a little bit of funding and, more importantly, to participate in an intensive three to six month mentoring program at the end of which you should ideally have a fundable business. They’re often confused with the now-less-hip incubators, which generally offer physical office space in addition to mentoring over a prolonged period.  Read More

Manhattan Restaurant’s Rooftop Farm Provides all the Fresh Ingredients it Needs

Below New York City’s skyscrapers, 8-foot tall okra plants tower over an impressive array of vegetables, herbs and flowers growing on a rooftop farm situated just 100-feet from the kitchen of Riverpark Restaurant. Lunch and dinner menus state that meals are made with “produce grown right here at the Riverpark Farm.” In fact, the 15,000-square-foot urban farm on East 29th Street supplies 100 percent of the restaurant’s organic herbs, lettuce, and flowers. Read More

LAST DAY to Lock in the Rooster Special Price for the Seedstock Sustainable Ag Conference at UCLA

There is only ONE DAY LEFT to lock in your ticket at the Rooster Special Ticket Price for the Seedstock Sustainable Agriculture Innovation Conference (details below) at UCLA. The conference has recently added a number of new sponsors including Whole Foods Market, Palumbo Family Vineyards and Wine, the UCLA Anderson School of Management’s Entrepreneur Association and Net Impact Branch. Read More

Blue River Technology Raises $3.1 Million from Khosla Ventures and Angel Investors

Photo: Blue River Technology

News Release–SUNNYVALE, Calif.–Blue River Technology, a pioneer in the use of computer vision and robotics for agriculture, today announced it has raised $3.1 million in Series A funding led by Khosla Ventures. Steve Blank, author of “The Startup Owner’s Manual,” Ulu Ventures, and Stanford Angels and Entrepreneurs also joined the round. In addition, Ryan Kottenstette of Khosla Ventures has joined the company’s board of directors.

Farm Management Software Startup Increases Efficiency, Opens Eyes and Wallets in Silicon Valley

Running a dairy or cattle operation efficiently requires the management, tracking and assessment of complex sets of data ranging from animal feeding cycles and health to overall production performance. Farmers and their teams often spend an inordinate amount of time and money shuffling through spreadsheets, manually cobbling together data to insure that their operations run smoothly.

To solve this problem and increase the efficiency of data management, a company called Farmeron has developed an online software product that enables livestock farmers to easily track the ins and outs of their animals. The company’s software program allows farmers to manage such data sets as the number of animals on the farm, feeding cycles, milk production, medical treatments, location transfers and much more. Through Farmeron’s cloud-based web application, farmers can update their data as they go and later create reports and analytics that keep their farms running more efficiently. Read More

A Primer for the Sustainable Ag Entrepreneur Thinking about Applying for a Patent

For many sustainable agriculture entrepreneurs the point at which their ideas become ‘real’ is the one at which they must confront the decision as to whether to patent their technology or process. This decision point frequently comes even before pilot projects are established or target customers identified. Unless you’re fortunate enough to work at a university or research facility that is willing to cover the cost of patenting, it will typically involve spending anywhere between $5,000 and $20,000 in legal fees in addition to using team time, at a stage where time and funds are scarce; so the decision is rarely taken lightly. Read More

Despite Technology Issues & Crop Costs, Investor Interest in 2nd Generation Biomass Remains

Biomass-based biofuels – fuels produced from renewable biological resources – are arguably the most successful of sustainable agriculture sectors when it comes to attracting investors. While other sectors were fortunate to break $100 million in investments, 33 biomass deals raked in just under $1.4 billion last year, according to industry journal Biofuels Digest. Read More

Sustainable Agriculture Startups Chase Venture Capital While Gov’t Grants May be a Better Option

For a startup, the odds of obtaining venture capital funding are lower than one in 100[1], likely less for a sustainable agriculture startup as I’ve covered elsewhere. The odds of securing a federal grant on the other hand are more like one in six [2], and they rise if you’re a student or university researcher. Yet, most agriculture startups spend a disproportionate amount of time chasing venture capital, and comparatively little considering grants as an option.

In the not too distant past, startups developed using government grants as opposed to equity investments were considered less hip than their venture capital backed brethren; the rationale being in part that those receiving grants would be less apt to move their idea speedily towards commercialization. Read More

Sustainable Agriculture Investor Sees Opportunity in Alternative Protein Sources

Ejnar Knudsen is one of the better known hedge fund managers in the sustainable agriculture space; he was investing in the sector as far back as the late 1990s, when he led Rabobank’s investments into the early wave of food and agriculture internet sites such as farms.com, a collection of agriculture information sites, and eHarvest.com, a news provider.

Knudsen is a long way from the stereotype of a money-hungry MBA-grad hedge fund manager; he describes himself as a “flexitarian” and is absorbed with finding better ways of utilizing fish oil and nuts to provide health benefits after weaning himself off cholesterol drugs thanks to a nut-rich diet. Until recently, he was one of the portfolio managers at 12-year old San Francisco-based hedge fund Passport Capital. A few weeks back he spoke about his interest in alternative proteins at a recent agriculture investing conference. Read More

In on the Ocean Floor, Aquaculture VC Firm Sees Opportunity for Sustainable Returns

The following post is part of a new column by real assets investor Nicola Kerslake that will focus on topics related to investment in sustainable agriculture and aquaculture. Last week’s post focused on the reason for a lack of venture capital investment in sustainable agriculture. 

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Photo courtesy of Open Blue Sea Farms

Like many a software guy, David Tze was flipping through Wired magazine back in 2004 when an article caught his eye. It described the overfishing of the world’s oceans and painted a grim supply picture going forward. The article piqued Tze’s interest and he through himself into learning as much as he could about sustainable aquaculture; “I became a little obsessed,” he admits.

A couple of months later, he began discussing the issue with his college classmate JaredPolis, the bluemountainarts.com, ProFlowers entrepreneur and current Congressman representing Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District. Polis was equally fascinated by aquaculture and eventually invited Tze to join his family office to focus on finding investments in the sector and Aquacopia, “the first and only aquaculture venture capital firm,” was born. “Our goal was to prove that you could make venture returns in aquaculture just as well as in technology,” Tze adds. Read More

The Mystery Behind the Lack of Venture Capital Investment in Sustainable Agriculture

The following post is part of a new column by real assets investor Nicola Kerslake that will focus on topics related to investment in sustainable agriculture. Sample topics will range from venture capital investment in sustainable agriculture and what VC investors look for in a startup to advice for entrepreneurs on obtaining government funding for agriculture projects and the benefits of joining an incubator.

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A couple of times a week, I get a call from an agriculture startup with the same complaint: “We have a brilliant idea and customers ready to go, but no venture capitalist invests in agriculture”. By and large, they’re right. Despite mainstream media reports – notably in the New York Times – that predicted a wave of venture capital (VC) investment into sustainable agriculture, only $6.4 billion was plowed into the entire food and agriculture sector by private equity investors in 2011.  This amounts to a mere 3% of total investment[1]. Read More

Startup Profile: Sustaining 600 Million Farmers With a Drip

Drip irrigation is not new technology, but up until now it has been out of reach for the nearly 600 million small-plot farmers in the developing world. It’s adoption in the coming years by small-plot farmers particularly in India, Africa and China where water scarcity issues continue to grow more acute will play an outsize role in sustaining agriculture and food security. To drive this adoption, Driptech, a for-profit Silicon Valley, CA-based social enterprise startup has developed a high quality, yet low-cost drip irrigation system. Read More

Startup Profile: Sustainable Agriculture: Coming Soon to A Supermarket Rooftop Near You!

From the creators of the Science Barge, the floating hydroponic greenhouse project supporting sustainable food production and powered 100% by renewable energy, comes a new company that builds, designs, finances, and operates hydroponic greenhouse farms on supermarket rooftops. It’s called BrightFarms. By growing produce on site, the company enables grocery retailers to alter their produce supply chain in a way that improves the planet and their profits. Read More