It’s that time of year when the figures are in and various august sources publish the investment data for the year just gone. AgFunder, most especially AgFunder News, have built a good reputation over the years as a source of news on agrifood investment developments from around the wold. Last week their 2025 report came out. Worth a read in its entirety if this is a space of interest. For me, the headlines are that global investment amount totals remain flat or slightly declining over the last 3 years. Countering that, is a real uptick in first time funded new starts which I interpret as a shift from capital keeping existing investments alive after the 2022 carnage to supporting new entrants. On the ‘most active investors’ side, SOSV top the venture rankings by number of investments. Finally – and likely related to the new entrants – is a sense that AI and Robotics is starting to scale in the sector.

Not sure with all the volatility what we can make of the year ahead. With a strong likelihood of inflation ahead throughout the food supply chain, the need for innovation remains high. Assuming this leads to market demand to deploy available interventions immediately, this may favor later stage companies with scaleable solutions get into revenue faster. If this is the case, their attractiveness for acquisition and the associated recycling of capital the space needs to grow might become feasible.