Valid announced the acquisition of 51.8% of Agrotopus, a startup focused on corporate solutions for agribusiness. Agrotopus’ customer base is coffee cooperatives that account for 12% of the Brazilian market. The acquisition value is R$ 6.5m. 

Chilean Fondo CLIN invested US$300k in Instacrops, a crop monitoring platform, and US$300k in SimpleRoute, a logistics platform. Fondo CLIN is administered by Fundación Chile, with funding from Corfo, family office Zoma Capital, Entel and Engie Factory.

Cargill has entered into a minority investment agreement with Agriness, a technology company focused on pork production. Agriness, which has a cloud-based digital platform for agricultural production management, has a share of more than 90 percent in the Brazilian pork market. 

SP Ventures and Abseed made a R$5m investment in Aegro, a software platform for grain cultivation with a team from UFRGS and IRGA. SP Ventures also invested in 2017.

KaszeK Ventures and SOS Ventures made a US$3m investment in NotCo, a Chilean foodtech startup accelerated at IndieBio. NotCo uses plant-based proteins to replicate mayonnaise, milk and other animal-based products without any animal-derived ingredients. 

Brazil’s BNDES selected DOMO Invest to manage its angel co-investment fund, which will invest up to R$100m over the next ten years across sectors, with initial tickets up to R$500k.

SP Ventures made a R$4.5m investment in SpecLab, a soil fertility analysis solution that spun out of Brazilian agriculture lab IBRA (Instituto Brasileiro de Análises).

Criatec 3, managed by Inseed Investimentos, made a R$10m investment in Intergado, a Brazilian precision livestock platform.

The Yield Lab has launched a Latin American program based in Buenos Aires and will take on six startups for the first cohort. The accelerator has so far invested in local agtechs Agree Market, Kilimo, and Eiwa.

Monsanto Growth Ventures made its inaugural Brazil investment in Grão Direto, a grain marketplace that primarily transacts via mobile and WhatsApp. Monsanto contributed about half of the R$2.3m investment, with participation from Canary and OpenVC.