Silicon Valley Comes to Agriculture

Farm Innovators Have New Places to Turn for Development Funding. Silicon Valley Players are Changing the Way Innovation is Financed. and the System Offers More than Money, Providing Entrepreneurs with Added Management Help

Agriculture is known for its innovative ways. Driven by a need to boost productivity and efficiency for more than a century, this is an industry that knows how to rethink what it does. The pace of change may be accelerating again as new-tech companies with an interesting pedigree enter the industry. Essentially,Silicon Valleyhas headed East.

"I think we're seeing a confluence of technology that has come together to solve problems," says Rob Leclerc, cofounder,AgFunder. "It's an opportunity to bring some new types of companies and new and innovative ideas to address [issues in agriculture]."

The rise of data- and technology-based startups has brought an interesting trend to agriculture — funding and resources like you might find in the San Francisco area. AgFunder is actually a firm that works to bring together potential investors for ag-focused technologies and ideas, but it's not the only one. And traditional Silicon Valley funding sources — including Y Combinator — are playing in this space, too.

For farmers, it means an opportunity to get access to new technologies and tools that might not have made their way to agriculture for some time. And for innovative farmers, it may mean easier access to needed capital to take an idea from start to finish.

Even a casual conversation over a new niche crop brings comments about venture capitalists expressing interest these days. It's a changing environment for innovators across the industry.

"[This trend] is good for the industry and farmers; it provides them more choices and puts more pressure on incumbents to raise their game," Leclerc says. And he adds that AgFunder's model would allow farmers who have money to invest to be part of the movement, too. "AgFunder-listed companies have raised over $13 million since launching in February of 2014."

One factor that got a lot of attention in the tech funding arena was Monsanto's purchase of The Climate Corp. in 2013 for about $1 billion.In the Silicon Valley world, that's a big payday for venture capitalists and others that invested in the climate data-based company. It moved the needle on the potential value of agriculture as a place to invest.

Source: Farm Industry News

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• Business Development
• Agriculture
• Finance and Markets