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.
SP Ventures is preparing to launch its second venture capital fund, which will exclusively focus on agtech opportunities. The firm is also expanding its geographic focus outside Brazil, and it is planning to invest in up to 20 startups across Latin America.
BTG Pactual launched BoostLab, an accelerator to scale up Brazilian startups with existing revenue and clients. The first cohort includes fintechs Liber Capital and F(x) (both backed by e.bricks Ventures), and Neurotech; as well as Clicksign, Zigpay and agtech startup Agronow (backed by SP Ventures).