Climate Finance | July 29, 2022

ImpactAlpha Deal Spotlight: Climate-smart agriculture

Roodgally Senatus
ImpactAlpha Editor

Roodgally Senatus

ImpactAlpha, July 29 — Farmers around the world will need to produce about 70% more food by 2050 to feed an estimated nine billion people. Agriculture is responsible for about a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions.

Climate-smart agriculture practices offer global farmers a pathway to sustainable productivity and increased income while mitigating agriculture’s contribution to climate change. Agtech startups with regenerative solutions are bringing in capital from investors to scale their impact.

Climate finance

Gates Foundation-backed Enko, which uses machine learning and drug discovery to develop non-chemical modes of killing agricultural pests and weeds, secured $70 million in a Series C round led by agrochemical company Nufarm.

Separately, Arable, whose data software and hardware tech helps food companies manage crop outcomes to optimize sustainability, raised $40 million from investors including Galvanize Climate Solutions, Prelude Ventures, S2G Ventures and Ajax Strategies.

Emerging markets

Smallholder farmers in emerging markets historically have had to wait a decade or more for access to new technologies and solutions. In India, Piatrika Biosystems snagged $1.2 million, led by Ankur Capital, to make sustainable seeds and farm inputs cheaper and more accessible to farmers.

In Argentina, Ucrop.it raised $3.1 million to help farmers in Latin America improve the traceability of their crops and benefit from sustainable agriculture practices.