Investing in ag technology startups requires patience

Source Domain: farmtario.com

Investors in Canada’s agricultural technology companies would love to expand their portfolios, but existing investments limit their ability to support new companies.

In 2020, Ag Capital Canada created an investment fund for agriculture and food technology companies, aiming to raise $25 million. They ended up with $26.2 million, says Jay Bradshaw, one of the fund’s principals.

All the money is invested in companies such as Ukko and Vodkow, which are growing, but not yet enough to leave their early investors behind.

Why It Matters: The inability to achieve what the tech startup world calls an ‘exit’ is one of the reasons agtech investment is stagnating.

Challenges in finding investors for startup companies and the ability to cycle money for investors were recurring themes at the first Canadian AgRobotics and AI Summit held at The Grove, Western Fair’s agriculture and food incubator in London.

Appetronix is a London, Ont., company developing automated kitchens. Imagine your late-night flight arrives after other airport kitchens have closed. Appetronix’s automated system provides on-demand pizza options, with its first commercial kitchen, Donato’s Pizza, currently operating out of the Columbus, Ohio, airport.

Canadian investment lacking

Nipun Sharma, a co-founder of Appetronix, says almost none of the $15 million they raised recently came from Canada.

Jana Tian co-founded Upside Robotics in Ontario due to the Waterloo area’s engineering and mechatronics manufacturing capacity.

After successfully completing a $10.2 million funding round, with almost all of it raised internationally, Tian said it’s clear that raising money for ambitious ideas within Canada is challenging.

“When I did speak to some venture capitalists in Canada, it’s like when you go on dates, and the first question that they would ask me is,…

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