AgFunder AgTech Investing Report 2014

7/23/2019 AgFunder AgTech Investing Report 2014

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AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2014: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM

AgTechInvesting ReportY E A R I N R E V I E W 2 0 1 4

MARCH 3, 2015


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AGTECH INVESTING REPORT 2014

INTRODUCTION


The AgTech sector had a record breaking year in 2014, with $2.36B invested across 264

deals. The big takeaway is that agriculture is being transformed by a confluence of new

technologies drawn from many industries: from genomics and non-GMO crop technologies,

to drones and the Internet of Thing (IoT) that give farmers real-time information, to protein

substitutes that threaten to disrupt the meat industry, and delivery services that threaten to

disintermediate traditional grocers and connect farmers more directly with consumers.

The opportunity for technology to modernize agriculture is massive. Agriculture is a $6.4T

global industry that employs 1.3B people worldwide and new technologies are emerging

which are promising to transform agriculture from a calcified industry to a tech industry as it

races against a growing population and middle class, changes in taste and diet, and faces its

impact on the environment.

This is the most complete profile of AgTech funding activity to-date to provide investors,

entrepreneurs, and industry participants with proof of this expanding sector. Like cleantech,

which was orientated around diverse technologies dealing with energy, efficiency, and

sustainability; AgTechs north star looks to the agriculture value chain and the

diverse technologies that directly touch the industry.

AgFunder is an online equity

crowdfunding platform for

agriculture technology. We

help Accredited and

Institutional Investors

discover & invest in

developing technologies to

transform the agriculture

industry.

Learn more @

www.agfunder.com

Authors: Melissa Tilney,

Rob Leclerc, and Emily Demarest.

Design: Simona Barta

Still on our mission to feed 10B by 2050!

Rob Leclerc, AgFunder CEO


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AGTECH FUNDING REPORT 2014: YEAR IN REVIEW | AGFUNDER.COM 4

ScopeThis financing report encompasses 264 financings of technology

companies within the global agriculture value chain for 2014.

Data was collected from a variety of sources, including

CrunchBase, press releases, articles, U.S. Securities and

Exchange filings, and direct sources.

The agriculture sector is one of the largest and most important

sectors of the economy, representing nearly 8.5% of Global

GDP. However, this size comes with tremendous diversity. The

sector is centered on cultivation of plants, animals, and other

living organisms for food, materials, biofuels, chemicals, and

medicinals. It also encompasses the rest of the agriculture value

chain, including inputs, storage, processing, packaging,

transportation, infrastructure, finance, health, and safety, as well

as marketing and retail services that connect these products to

consumers.

Drawing the line between AgTech and consumer technologies

was not easy. While restaurant-to-customer food delivery may

technically fall within the agriculture value chain, we ultimately

felt that these services were unlikely to have a disruptive effect

on other areas of the agriculture value chain, therefore, we

excluded these companies from our analysis. In contrast, we

included grocery delivery services like Door to Door Organics

which raised a $25.5 million Series B from the Arlon Group (the

food and agriculture focused investment arm of Continental

Grain). Unlike restaurant delivery, grocery delivery services like

Door to Door Organics and Instacart have a significant

opportunity to disrupt the entire supply chain that sits

between the farmer and the consumer. For clarity we grouped

Food Ecommerce and Farm 2 Consumer (F2C) marketplaces

separately.

Similarly, there was a fine line between food technologies and

food products, and so the inclusion of food technology

companies was limited to companies that had a potential impact

on the rest of the agriculture value chain. Companies like

Hampton Creek, Beyond Meat, and Modern Meadow are all

developing technologies that could have significant impact onthe use of animals in agriculture, and so these were included.

For other technologies, such as drones, LEDs, sensors, and

biotech, in which application spans a number of sectors, we only

included those companies that self identified agriculture as a key

market.

Methods

METHODS


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Tagging and CategorizationTo help categorize the companies, we first generated a set of 30

keywords and tagged each companys CrunchBase description

when it contained the keyword. We then manually curated the

list to ensure that keywords were properly appliedin some

cases removing tags, in others adding tags. Using the tags,

description for each company (and sometimes the companys

website) and seeing a sufficient concentration of investment or

deal volume, we then assigned each company to a category soas to capture groups of companies that shared similar tags, and

which were relevant either by number of deals or by total

funding.

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 receivedfinancing in 2014, but which are absent from our analysis.

Undisclosed Financings

Of the 264 financings in our data set, twenty-two had

undisclosed financings that could not be determined through

SEC filings or direct sources. We were often able to obtain

financing figures from the companies themselves, but they

requested that we did not disclose exact figures. We excluded

undisclosed financings in which we computed averages and

median values.

Multiple Financings

Several companies closed multiple financings in the period

between January 2013 to the end of 2014. While CrunchBase

data was generally accurate, there were instances whereCrunchBase data double counted financings on a cumulative

raise. To correct for double counting, we filtered our l ist to all

companies that raised capital in 2013 and also in the first six

months of 2014. We then manually searched the SEC filings and

cross referenced with press releases to ensure that we were

recording the balance of an amendment.

In some cases, CrunchBase displayed multiple financings in thesame year, but upon closer examination of the SEC filings, we

discovered that these were often part of the same round. When

multiple financings represented rolling closes from the same

round, we compounded all smaller financings into the largest so

as to not inflate the total number of deals.

Methods (Continued)

METHODS


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YEAR IN REVIEW


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271

Unique Investors

264

Deals

$2.36B

Invested

OVERVIEW 2014


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1. AgTech as a Sizeable Investment ClassAgTech had a breakout year in 2014 in terms of deal volume

and investment totals. Our analysis of AgTechs $2.36B in

financing over 264 deals in 2014 shows that AgTech received

more financing than seven of the 19 sectors tracked by

MatterMark1and is on par with venture funding for security

companies ($2.3B), and ahead of cleantech ($2.0B) and fintech

($2.2B).

2. The Emergence of Precision AgPrecision agriculture is broadly defined as the group of

hardware and software technologies that help farmers improve

decision-making with data-driven analytics. Companies can be

analytics providers or provide supporting technologies, such as

drone platforms that have identified agriculture as a key vertical.

Precision ag represented 30% of AgTech deals in 20142, but

received only 12% of investment capital. Most investmentcentered on early stage opportunities: 83% of the deals were

Seed or Series A, with median deal size of $1.15M. FarmLink

($40M) and Airware ($25M) stood out at later stage companies

that received significant financing.

We anticipate that large, stand-alone companies will emerge as

the space matures, and this may trigger consolidation and M&A.

3. Bullish Bets Were Made in FoodTechAt the other end of the agriculture value chain spectrum,

foodtech3companies saw $679M in financing over 59 deals.

Dominating this group was grocery delivery service Instacart

($260M), and Hampton Creek ($113M), which is aiming to

disrupt the poultry industry with a plant-based egg. Together,

these two companies represented over 50% of the total

foodtech financing. Overall, sustainable protein also attracted

some of most elite firms in Silicon Valley, as these companies

disrupt the meat and egg industry, which traditionally demands

many resources to maintain and has a huge environmental

impact. It appears these investors are challenging the idea that

venture capital isnt out to solve big problems.

Five themes stood out from the AgTech fundings for 2014:

THEMES

1. Mattermark Traction Report 2014. Note: time period for Mattermark Oct. 1, 2013-Sept. 30, 2014.

2. Precision Ag mostly encompasses the companies in the categories: Decision Support Technologies, Drones & Robotics, and Smart Equipment & Hardware

3. FoodTech mostly encompases companies in the ategories: Sustainable Protein, Farm2Consumer (F2C), Food Ecommerce, Food Safety & Traceability.


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4. Indoor Agricultures New FrontierIndoor Agriculture also had a breakout year, receiving seven

percent of invested dollars in 2014. Long considered unviable

due to high energy costs, the emergence of Indoor Agriculture is

being driven by the local food movement and water

conservation initiatives, affordable LEDs, and a nascent

cannabis industry. The largest deals in 2014 were London-

headquartered SunDrop Farms, which raised $100M from KKR,

and New Jersey Based Aerofarms which raised $36M.

5. Investors Got High on CannabisGiven deregulation trends (and Snoop Doggs recent announcement

of a $25M fund for weed startups) no AgTech report would be

complete without a summary of technology geared towards the

cannabis industry.

While not all cannabis startups fall within the scope of AgTech, twelve

weedtech (and hemp) companies captured nearly $23M in total

funding for 2014, with a median deal size of $1.16M. The largest

financing went to GrowLife ($12.1M), which produces cultivation

technology for growers and trades on the OTC under the symbol

PHOT. Of notable mention, Eaze gave new meaning to the term

getting high after it raised $1.5M for its marijuana drone delivery

service. In this case, we know what those investors were smoking.

Five themes stood out from the AgTech fundings for 2014:

THEMES


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$467

$416

$509

$969

55

78

67

64

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

10

Investment was strong across allquarters. Investment dollars dipped

slightly in Q2, but deal volume

surged to 78 deals and stayed

above Q1 levels for the rest of the

year.

Q4 ended on an upswing as deal

flow reached $969M, a 90% jump

over Q3 and greater than any other

two quarters combined. Five deals

(Instacart, LanzaTech, SunDrop

Farms, Hampton Creek, and

Impossible Foods) drove this

performance, accounting for 54%

of Q4 investments.

Deal Volume and Amount by Quarter

DEAL ACTIVITY BY QUARTER

Deal Volume

Financing | $Millions


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DE LS BY SUBSECTOR


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As the chart illustrates, the AgTechindustry is diverse and investment

is distributed across many

subsectors, with ten subsectors

receiving >5% of total funding.

Food ecommerce, bioenergy, and

soil & crop technology were the

largest subsectors in 2014,

accounting for 45% of all

investment dollars.

(See Deal Volume and Amount by

Subsector for complete list ofsubsectors.)

AgTech Subsector Breakdown

DEALS BY SUBSECTOR

16

16

13

8

7

7

7

5

5

5

9

Bioenergy

Food Ecommerce

Soil & Crop Tech

Sustainable Protein

Biomaterials & biochem

Indoor Agriculture

Waste Mitigation

Decision Support Tech

Smart Equip. & Hardware

Drones & Robotics

Other

% of Total Investment Dollars


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$374

$370

$314

$200

$177

$175

$154

$129

$125

$119

$59

$49

$25

$19

$16

$54

Bioenergy

Food Ecommerce

Soil & Crop Tech

Sustainable Protein

Biomaterials & Biochem

Indoor Agriculture

Waste Mitigation


Smart Equip & Hardware

Drones & Robotics

Farm2Consumer (F2C)

Food Safety & Traceability

Food Storage

Water

Animal Nutrition & Health

Miscellaneous

13

Bioenergy received the mostinvestment capital with $374M, but

there are three broad financing

clusters: one group above $300M,

a second group from $100M-

$200M, and then a third group

below $60M.

Deal volume was distributed

differently. The top three

subsectors by deal amount

accounted for only 25% of deal

volume. In contrast, precision ag

(drones, smart equipment, anddecision support technology)

accounted for 29%.

Deal Volume and Amount by Subsector

DEALS BY SUBSECTOR


# Deals

19

22

26

6

22

19

12

30

22

23

14

10

4

5

5

25


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Sustainable protein was an outlierthis year. It had only a few deals (6)

but 4/6 were large investments

(Beyond Meat was undisclosed).

Companies like Hampton Creek,

Impossible Foods, Modern

Meadow, and Beyond Meat were

all backed by deep-pocketed VCs

These companies threaten to

disrupt the meat and egg industry,

which consumes much of our crop

production as feed.

Average deal size for AgTechoverall was $9.7M, which is in the

top 50thpercentile across all

industries receiving venture

funding1.

Average Deal Size

DEALS BY SUBSECTOR


1. Mattermark Traction Report 2014. Note: Date is U.S. only and covers the time period from Oct. 1, 2013-Sept. 30, 2014.

$40

$22

$21

$15

$13

$11

$8.9

$6.2

$6.2

$5.7

$5.4

$4.9

$4.8

$4.5

$3.2

$2.2

Sustainable Protein

Food Ecommerce

Bioenergy

Waste Mitigation

Soil & Crop Tech

Indoor Agriculture


Food Storage



Drones & Robotics

Farm2Consumer (F2C)

Water



Miscellaneous


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Median deal size for sustainable

protein was lower than the average

deal size by almost half ($23M vs

$40M), but was still 3x higher than

the next subsector.

Newer technology subsectors, like

drones, decision support

technology, and smart equipment

had small median deal sizes,

reflecting both the volume and

smaller investment sizes.

Median Deal Size

DEALS BY SUBSECTOR


$23.0

$8.0

$5.7

$4.5

$4.2

$3.1

$2.8

$2.5

$2.2

$2.1

$2.0

$1.5

$1.4

$1.3

$0.3

$1.0

Sustainable Protein

Soil & Crop Tech

Food Storage

Bioenergy

Water


Waste Mitigation



Food Ecommerce

Drones & Robotics

Indoor Agriculture

Farm2Consumer (F2C)



Miscellaneous


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Spotlight on Precision Ag

89

Unique Investors

70

Deals

$276M

Invested


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Precision ag software (9) and

drones (8) captured the largest

deals in 2014. Of the farm

management systems, Conservis,

FarmLogs, AgWorld, Farmers

Business Network, Farmers Edge,

and Granular have somewhat

competing technologies, but this

did not seem to deter investors.

Outside the pack above, Semios

(Hardware/Software), Blue River

(Robotics), and Silent Herdsman

(Hardware/Software) aredeveloping unique solutions and

have no direct competitors.

Spotlight on Precision Ag: Top 20 Deals

SPOTLIGHT PRECISION AGRICULTURE

$40

$25

$20

$13

$12

$10

$10

$10$10

$10

$7.0

$5.6

$4.6

$4.5

$4.5

$4.2

$4.2

$4.0

FarmLink

Airware

XAircraft

SkyCatch

Kespry

Conservis

FarmLogs

Blue River TechnologyEhang

PrecisionHawk

aWhere

Agworld

Farmers Business Network

Silent Herdsman

Skymet

Airphrame

Granular

FarmLogs

Farmer's Edge

Semios

Undisclosed

Undisclosed


Series B

Series A


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Of the thirteen investors that

invested in two or more precision

ag deals, six came from outside of

Silicon Valley. Four of which were

based in the mid-west including

Serra Ventures (640 Labs, Agrible,

Plant Link); Drive Capital, Huron

Ventures, Hyde Park and Ventures

(2x FarmLogs).

Notably, startup accelerator Start-

Up Chile invested in three drone

companies (Iron Drone, Hard

Drones, Agribots) and Pycno whichuses soil sensors for real-time

monitoring.

Spotlight on Precision Ag: Investors in 2+ Deals

SPOTLIGHT PRECISION AGRICULTURE

0 1 2 3 4

Start-Up Chile

Khosla Ventures

Kleiner Perkins Cau!eld & Byers

Serra Ventures

Y Combinator

Andreessen Horowitz

Data Collective

Drive Capital

Google Ventures

Huron River Ventures

Hyde Park Venture Partners

Portland Seed Fund

SoftTech VC

Number of Deals in 2014


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Investors made big bets in indoor

ag last year. KKR made the biggest

best, investing $100M in London

headquartered SunDrop Farms.

SunDrop will use this money to

build a 20-hectare greenhouse

facility, which will be one of the

largest indoor production facilities

in the world.

With the new economics of indoor

ag production facilities, and the

consumer demand for consistent

sources of fresh produce, investorsshowed an appetite for urban, local

production providing fresh food

grown within city limits. Six of the

top ten indoor ag companies do

this.

Snapshot: Top 10 Indoor Agriculture Deals

SNAPSHOT OF INDOOR AGRICULTURE


$100

$36

$12

$8.0

$4.9

$4.6

$3.7

$2

$1

$0.96

SunDrop Farms

AeroFarms

GrowLife

Gotham Greens

BrightFarms

PodPonics

Freight Farms

Grove Labs

FusionPharm

Zero Carbon Food


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In 2014, most weedtech deals were

small, below $1.5M. The one

exception was hydroponics

developer Growlife, which raised

$12.1M to extend its business from

cannabis to include vegetable

cultivation.

Companies in weedtech ran the

gamut from weed delivery services

(Eaze) to cannabinoids-based

pharmaceuticals (LaraPharm) to

commercial growing technologies

(TriQ Systems).

Unlike in other subsectors, most

companies did not disclose their

investors.

Snapshot: Top 10 Weedtech Deals

SNAPSHOT CANNABIS TECH


$12.14

$1.5

$1.5

$1.5

$1.5

$1.3

$1

$0.97

$0.88

$0.2

GrowLife

Eaze

TriQ Systems

LaraPharm

Potbotics

Surna

FusionPharm

Meadow

Greengro

Arcadia EcoEnergies


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DEALS BY STAGE


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Seed stage deals accounted for

over 46% of all AgTech deals, but

received only 3% investment

dollars. This is expected for a

relatively new industry where the

majority of activity is in new

company formation.

Deal volume shows a clear trend

the number of companies receiving

capital is highest for seed stage

and then declines dramatically with

each next stage.

Deal Amount and Volume by Stage

DEALS BY STAGE

$82

$419

$349

$617

$299

$424

$171

121

53

33

16

7

17 17

Seed A B C D Late/Other

Debt

Deal Volume



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Four of the top 20 deals went to

drone companies and four went to

weedtech, with weed-by-drone

delivery startup Eaze sitting in both

camps.

Precision ag company, 640 Labs,

raised $3.2M in Seed funding in

2014, and was just recently

acquired by Climate Corporation for

an undisclosed amount.

Top 20 Seed Deals

DEALS BY STAGE

$4

$3.2

$3

$2.9

$2.7

$2.1

$2

$2

$1.7

$1.7

$1.5

$1.5

$1.5

$1.5

$1.5$1.5

$1.5

$1.5

$1.4

$1.4

6Sensor Labs

640 Labs

Airex Energy

Gro Intelligence

Farmeron

Drync

Grove Labs

DroneDeploy

mOasis

Exo Protein

Potbotics

Eaze

LaraPharm

Esoko Networks

SkyWard IOMarly Spoon

Greencart

TriQ Systems

Farm At Hand

Ceres Imaging



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$75

$36

$20

$20

$17

$13

$13

$12

$12

$11

$10

$10

$10

$10

$10$10

$9.5

$7.5

$7

Impossible Foods

AeroFarms

XAircraft

Yummy77

Lyxia

SkyCatch

BlueWrap

Kespry

Emulate

Nagare Membranes

Conservis

Blue River Technology

Ehang

FreshRealm

Modern MeadowEnterra Feed

Club-W

Symbiota

aWhere

Semios

24

Impossible Foods captured an

impossibly large Series A from an

envious group of investors

including Bill Gates, Khosla, and

Chinese Billionaire Li-Ka Shing

(Horizons Venture). Impossible

Foods was founded by a 60-year

old Stanford professor and first-

time entrepreneur, Patrick Brown.

The company is developing a

bioengineered molecule found in

hemoglobin made from plants

which tastes like blood. Impossible

Foods thinks that this may be thekey to an all plant burger fit for a

carnivore.

Top 20 Series A Deals

DEALS BY STAGE


Undisclosed


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$44

$40

$26

$26

$25

$23

$21

$17

$15

$10

$10

$8

$8

$8

$6.8$6

$5

$5

$4.9

Instacart

FarmLink

Rivertop Renewables

Door to Door Organics

Airware

Hampton Creek

Good Eggs

Newleaf Symbiotics

BioConsortia

FarmLogs

PrecisionHawk

Gotham Greens

Agrisoma

JDCPhosphate

YnsectGreen & Grow

Microvi Biotechnologies

WISErg

BrightFarms

Farmer's Edge

25

While some companies struggle to

raise their first million, Instacart

snagged a $44M Series B in June

and six months later raised a

$220M Series C. Door to Door

Organics and Good Eggs which

connects reaches farther back in

the value chain than Instacart

raised $47M altogether. However,

Good Eggs recently laid off 15% of

their workforce and so they may be

reconsidering their business model.

Top 20 Series B Deals

DEALS BY STAGE

Undisclosed



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DEALS BY GEOGRAPHY


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Canadian AgTech companies

captured seven of the top twenty

international investments, followed

by China (3) and the UK (3).

In 2013 Israeli-based bio-AgTech

company Kaiima raised $65M.

Israel has a thriving AgTech

community and is home to the

AgTech accelerator Mofet

Ventures. However, in 2014 Israel

had only two financings that were

publicly disclosed (LaraPharma,

and Cropx), but neither companymade the top 20. It is likely that

other Israeli AgTech companies

received funding, but the

information was not widely

disseminated.

Top 20 International Deals

DEALS BY GEOGRAPHY

$100

$20

$20

$10

$10

$10

$8.0

$5.6

$5.0

$4.5

$4.5

$3.5

$3.0

$3.0

$2.8

$2.6

$2.5

$2.2

SunDrop Farms

XAircraft

Yummy77

Enterra Feed

Fruitday

Oxitec

Agrisoma

Agworld

Marly Spoon

Silent Herdsman

Skymet

Horatau

Resson Aerospace

Airex Energy

Mekitec

Trecker

Zakaz.ua

Prestodiag

Farmer's Edge

Semios

Undisclosed

Undisclosed



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$220$112

$110

$100

$90

$75

$68

$50

$48$44

$40

$36

$36

$33

$30

$28

$26

$26

$25

$23

Instacart

LanzaTech

VitAg

Cool Planet Energy

Hampton Creek

Impossible Foods

BioNano

Blue Apron

Verdezyne

Instacart

FarmLink

AeroFarms

Chromatin

Arcadia BioSciences

Fulcrum Bioenergy

Aseptia

Rivertop Renewables

Door to Door Organics

Airware

Digital Lumens

Top 20 U.S. Venture Capital Deals

28

DEALS BY GEOGRAPHY


Series C

Series B

The top 20 U.S. venture capital

deals in agtech spanned nearly

every sector, with most of the top

deals going to grocery delivery,

sustainable protein, and bioenergy

companies.

Two precision agriculture

companies, FarmLink and AirWare,

also made the top 20 list.


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In the U.S. AgTech investing

follows a different pattern than

other industries. More investments

are made in the Midwest and other

states (like Texas) involved in

agriculture.

Predictably, California had the

largest volume of deal activity -

36% of all deals, over 4x more

deals than any other state. But, this

is actually lower than would be

expected, given that California is

both the largest agriculture state inthe U.S. ($43B) and it received

over 41% of all venture capital

deals (1,804) across all sectors in

20141.

U.S. Investment: Number of Deals by State

DEALS BY GEOGRAPHY

65

68

Deals Funded

1. National Venture Capital Association/Price WaterhouseCoopers (Prepared by SSTI)


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U.S. companies accounted for

nearly 90% of reported investment

in 2014.

Within the U.S., California

companies dominated the the field,

capturing 46% percent of all

venture capital over 68 deals.

However, as with deal volume on

the previous slide, investment

totals are lower than expected

given that California companies

were the recipients of more than

56% of U.S. venture capital dollars($27B) in 20141.

U.S. Investment: Dollar Value of Deals by State

DEALS BY GEOGRAPHY

$967

$207

$139

$127

$118

$110

$92

$75

$59$40

$35

$28

$26

$15

$12

$5.9

$4.9

$4.6

$4.0

$4.0

California

Illinois

Colorado

New York

Massachusetts

South Carolina

Florida

North Carolina

MissouriMinnesota

Washington

Michigan

Montana

Texas

Pennsylvania

Ohio

New

Georgia

Nebraska

Tennessee


1. National Venture Capital Association/Price WaterhouseCoopers (Prepared by SSTI)


30/47


INVESTOR ACTIVITY


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AgTech had 271 unique investors

2014, and forty one of those made

two or more investments. This is a

healthy indicator showing recurring

activity in the sector, and its

comparable to other fast growing

industries.

The most active investors were top-

tier Silicon Valley investors with a

history in cleantech, like Khosla

(10), Kleiner (5), and Andreesson

(5). Ag focused investors, like

Cultivian Sandbox (6) were theother notable group. Among active

investors, a new crop of

accelerators participated, albeit in

small investment amounts.

Number of Deals by Investors

INVESTOR ACTIVITY

#AgTech Investments Added to Portfolio in 2014

#Investors

NumberofInvestors

230

29

x1 x2 x3 x4 x5 x6 x10


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Instacart$220M Series C

Advanced Animal Diagnostics$15M Series C

Edyn$1.15M Seed



LanzaTech$112M Series D

Vestaron$14M Series C

Tule$1M Seed

Instacart$44M Series B

Airware$25M Series B

Hampton Creek$90M Series C

Conservis$10M Series A

Glowing Plants$120k Seed

Airware$25M Series B

Farmers Business Network$4.6 M Series A

Impossible Foods$75M Series A

AbClex$2M Series B

Ginko Bioworks$120k Seed

Granular$4.2M Series A

Beyond MeatUndisclosed Series B

Instacart$44M Series B

enEvolv$1.8M Series A

TerrAvion$97k Seed

AgLocal$1.3M Seed

Farmers EdgeUndisclosed Series B

Hampton Creek$23M Series B

Novihum TechnologiesUndisclosed

Meadow$97k Seed

BioConsortia$15M Series B

Blue River Technologies$10M Series A

Granular$4.2M Series A

Tule$1M Seed

33

Investments by Top 5 Most Active Investors

INVESTOR ACTIVITY


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Investors with 2+ Deals

INVESTOR ACTIVITY

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Khosla VenturesCultivian Sandbox Ventures

Y CombinatorAndreessen Horowitz

Kleiner Perkins Cau!eld & ByersHorizons Ventures

Start-Up Chile

Collaborative FundGoogle Ventures

SoftTech VCSerra Ventures

Invested DevelopmentCanaan Partners

Sequoia CapitalGoldman Sachs

BP Alternative EnergyOPENAIR Equity Partners

Open PrairiePangaea Ventures

SJF VenturesAnterra Capital

Wheatsheaf InvestmentsOtter Capital

Syngenta VenturesComerica Bank

Huron River VenturesDrive Capital

Hyde Park Venture PartnersAvrio Capital

Lightspeed Venture PartnersData Collective

Upfront Ventures

Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ)Lemnos Labs

SK Ventures500 Startups

Felicis VenturesGalvanize VenturesPortland Seed Fund

Coolidge Corner InvestmentVilCap Investments

Startup incubators and accelerators Y

Combinator, Start-Up Chile, Invested

Development, 500 Startups, and

Lemnos Labs, Galvanize, Village

Capital participated in 21 out of the 123

Seed funded AgTech companies

(17%). This suggests that incubators

and accelerators may be an important

source of capital for AgTech companies

that may otherwise have difficulty

raising seed capital from mainstream

investors. Y Combinator, whose alumni

include Airbnb and DropBox, put out a

Request for Startups in Food & Waterand was the top destination for AgTech

startups (6).

Number of Deals in 2014


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$132

$132

$62

$49

$42

$34

$25

$23

$21

$20

$19

$16

$16

$15

$13

$13

$11

$11

$10

$9.5

Canaan Partners

Sequoia Capital

Goldman Sachs

Horizons Ventures

BP Alternative Energy

Khosla Ventures

Andreessen Horowitz

Collaborative Fund

OPENAIR Equity Partners

Kleiner Perkins Cau!eld & Byers

Comerica Bank

Open Prairie

Pangaea Ventures

SJF Ventures

Anterra Capital

Google Ventures

Wheatsheaf Investments

Otter Capital

Cultivian Sandbox Ventures

Syngenta Ventures

35

AgTech focused VCs like Cultivian,

Syngenta, Anterra Capital and Open

Prairie, tended to participate in smaller

rounds ($9.5M - $16M), having little

overlap large Silicon Valley VCs. This

may reflect a more conservative

mandate or fund size limitations. In

contrast, many of the biggest name VC

firms in Silicon Valley were active in the

large rounds of +$20M, including Khosla,

Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner.

As this current batch of early stage

companies matures, it will be interestingto see if AgTech VCs will raise larger

funds that can support these companies

to larger exits, rather than being forced

into an early exit to a strategic.

Median Round Size of Top 20 Investors

INVESTOR ACTIVITY



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APPENDIX


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TOP 5 DEALS

Top 5 Deals: Bioenergy

Company Funding Date Raised Stage Investors

LanzaTech 12/08/14 $112M Series DK1W1, QiMing Venture Partners, Siemens

Venture Capital, CICC, Malaysian LifeSciences Capital Fund, Khosla Ventures

Cool Planet Energy Systems 03/31/14 $100M Series D UBS, Goldman Sachs

Fulcrum Bioenergy 08/11/14 $30M Series D Cathay Paci!c Airways Ltd.

Ceres 03/10/14 $23MPost IPO

EquityBirchview Capital, Orgacile Investment

Management

NexSteppe 09/23/14 $22M Series CTotal Energy Ventures, ELFH Holding,

Braemar Energy Ventures, DuPont Ventures


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TOP 5 DEALS

Top 5 Deals: Biomaterials & Biochemicals


Verdezyne 03/28/14 $48M Series CBP Alternative Energy, DSM Venturing, OVP

Venture Partners, Monitor Ventures

Rivertop Renewables 04/09/14 $26M Series B First Green Partners

Metabolix 09/04/14 $25MPost IPO

EquityUndisclosed

Plandai 02/10/14 $15M Equity Lincoln Park Capital Fund

Metabalon 01/06/14 $15M Series ECamden Partners, Harris & Harris Group,

Fletcher Spaght Ventures, The Aurora Funds,Syngenta Ventures


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TOP 5 DEALS

Top 5 Deals: Crop & Soil Technology


BioNano 11/20/14 $68M Series CDomain Associates, Novartis Venture Fund,

Gund Investment Corporation, LegendCapital, Battelle Ventures

Chromatin 01/09/14 $36M Series EBP Alternative Energy, GE Capital, Illinois

Ventures

Marrone Bio Innovations 05/16/14 $35MPost IPO

EquityUndisclosed

Arcadia BioSciences 05/08/14 $33M Series DSaints Capital, CMEA Capital, Mandala

Capital, BASF Venture Capital

Newleaf Symbiotics 09/15/14 $17M Series BOpen Prairie, Pangaea Ventures, RockPort

Capital, Palo Alto Investors


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TOP 5 DEALS

Top 5 Deals: Decision Support Technology


FarmLink 08/19/14 $40M Series B Thorndale Farm, OPENAIR Equity Partners

Conservis 09/08/14 $10M Series AHeartland Farms, Cultivian Sandbox

Ventures, Middleland Capital

FarmLogs 12/17/14 $10M Series BSV Angel, Huron River Ventures, Hyde Park

Venture Partners, Drive Capital

aWhere 09/08/14 $7M Series A Elixir Capital Management

Farmer's Edge 11/10/14 Undisclosed Series B Kleiner Perkins Cau!eld & Byers


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TOP 5 DEALS

Top 5 Deals: Drones & Robotics


Airware 06/23/14 $25M Series B Undisclosed

XAircraft 09/01/14 $20M Series A Chengwei Capital

SkyCatch 05/23/14 $13M Series A Google Ventures,"Venture Capital

Kespry 10/24/14 $12M Series A Lightspeed Venture Partners

Blue River Technology 03/19/14 $10M Series AKhosla Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, Data

Collective


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TOP 5 DEALS

Top 5 Deals: Farm 2 Consumer


Door to Door Organics 11/10/14 $26M Series B Greenmont Capital Partners, Arlon Group

Good Eggs 09/08/14 $21M Series B Index Ventures

Vital Farms 09/25/14 $2.3M Series A Undisclosed

Cortilia 11/05/14 $1.9M Series A P101

Hello Nature 09/29/14 $1.4M Series AMirae Asset Venture Investment, Softbank

Ventures Korea


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TOP 5 DEALS

Top 5 Deals: Food E-Commerce


Instacart 12/30/14 $220M Stage CSequoia Capital, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner

Perkins Cau!eld & Byers, Canaan Partners,Andreessen Horowitz

Blue Apron 04/25/14 $50M Stage C Stripes Group

Instacart 06/16/14 $44M Stage BSequoia Capital, Khosla Ventures, CanaanPartners, Andreessen Horowitz, American

Express Ventures

Yummy77 05/19/14 $20M Stage A Amazon, AmazonFresh

Fruitday 03/25/14 $10M Stage C SIG China, ClearVue Partners


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DEALS BY SUBSECTOR

Top 5 Deals: Food Safety & Traceability


Aseptia 03/04/14 $28M Series CLookout Capital, SJF Ventures, Prudential

Capital Partners

Invisible Sentinel 01/14/14 $7M Series C Unknown

6Sensor Labs 09/11/14 $4M SeedUpfront Ventures, Lemnos Labs, SoftTech

VC, Xandex Investments, SK Ventures

Mekitec 03/05/14 $2.8M Series A Inventure Oy, Finnish Industry Investment

Prestodiag 06/14/14 $2.2M Series AAmorcage Technologique Investissement,

Go Beyond, Kreizig Invest, CapDecisifManagement


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DEALS BY SUBSECTOR

Top 5 Deals: Indoor Agriculture


SunDrop Farms 12/04/14 $100MPrivateEquity

KKR

AeroFarms 11/10/14 $36M Series A Undisclosed

GrowLife 06/21/14 $12MPost IPO

EquityUndisclosed

Gotham Greens 11/24/14 $8M Series B Undisclosed

BrightFarms 01/29/14 $4.9M Series B NGEN Partners, Emil Capital Partners


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DEALS BY SUBSECTOR

Top 5 Deals: Indoor Agriculture


Hampton Creek 12/18/14 $90M Series C

Tao Capital Partners, Collaborative Fund, Horizons

Ventures, Founders Fund, Far East Organization,

WP Global Partners, Khosla Ventures, Uni-

President Enterprises Corporation,Velos Partners

Impossible Foods 10/14/14 $75M Series AHorizons Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Google

Ventures, Bill Gates

Hampton Creek 02/17/14 $23M Series BHorizons Ventures, Khosla Ventures,

Collaborative Fund, AME Cloud Ventures, Eagle

Cli"Partners

Modern Meadow 06/26/14 $10M Series A Horizons Ventures, ARTIS Ventures

Beyond Meat 07/29/14 Undisclosed Series DKleiner Perkins Cau!eld & Byers, Obvious

Ventures, Morgan Creek Capital, ClosedLoop

Capital, DNS Capital,S2G Ventures


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DEALS BY SUBSECTOR

Top 5 Deals: Waste Mitigation


VitAg 07/14/14 $110MPrivateEquity

Shrieve Chemical, Tennenbaum CapitalPartners, TPG Alternative and Renewable

Technologies, Citigroup Global Markets

Harvest Power 10/27/14 $20M Series DGeneration Investment Management, True

North Venture Partners, Industry Ventures

Enterra Feed 03/27/14 $10M Series A Avrio Capital, Wheatsheaf Investments

Ynsect 12/17/14 $6.8M Series B Demeter Partners, EMERTEC

WISErg 06/24/14 $5M Series B Angel Investors LP


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Last updated May 3, 2015

AgFunder AgTech Investing Report 2014

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