Agtech - So What?

Global geopolitical disruptions first put fertilizer center stage as farmers around the world struggled with price and supply swings. But that was just the beginning of the conversation– as fertilizer tech begins to step into the spotlight, offering alternatives not only to traditional products, but to our whole way of thinking about the crop nutrients sector.
Today, Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast joins Sarah to dig into the “so what?” of the nitrogen tech we’ve discussed here on the podcast and the fertilizer innovations Tim has recently covered. Along the way, we discuss key quotes from our recent fertilizer episodes and offer theories on what the future will look like.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

Disclaimer: Tenacious Ventures is an investor in Jupiter Ionics
The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness is given, except for liability under statue which cannot be excluded.

Topics: fertilizer, ag-inputs, agtech-ecosystem, climate-risk

Breaking news in the agtech world abounds here at the beginning of 2023, and as we've tracked the latest announcements, we've been thinking a lot about a few tech updates, especially from major brands, and what they might mean for the agtech landscape in the near future.
Today, teammates Komal Patel and Matthew Pryor join Sarah to discuss a few pieces of news from the past few weeks that stood out. We dig into the details, read between the lines, and argue why we think they're worth paying attention to.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness is given, except for liability under statue which cannot be excluded.

Companies: Mineral (X), Planet Labs, John Deere • Topics: agtech-ecosystem, ag-data, farm-machinery, insurance-risk

Agtech has long had an interest in shortening the supply chain between farms and consumers. And yet after years of effort, relatively little progress has been made beyond a proliferation of farmers markets and some new “local” tags at supermarkets. There are a lot of challenges in this space that go beyond a simple technical fix, and overcoming them often requires rethinking the entire business model.
Enter Michael Bosworth, farmer and founder of Next Generation Foods, a California-based food brand and distribution company that's reinventing how food moves from the fields to chefs and home kitchens alike, with a special interest in sustainability, science, and transparency. Michael’s not only growing rice in a highly water-vulnerable region, he’s also growing a valuable food business to market his products and those from nearby farms to ensure that his model is both environmentally and economically sustainable.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

Companies: Next Generation Foods • Topics: food-systems, supply-chain, business-model, venture-startups

2022 was a wild year– both in the world of agtech broadly, and for us here at Tenacious Ventures. We’ve covered a lot of ground, spanning everything from scaling soil tech, to the future of ag marketing, to alternative protein, novel investing tactics, and most recently, the next generation of farm inputs.
Today, we’re taking some time to reflect on the most important lessons we’ve learned on the podcast this year– and for us, it all came back to the question of how tech can help mitigate risk in agriculture. You’ll hear snippets from five episodes that we found particularly thought-provoking in relation to the risk question.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

Topics: agtech-ecosystem, climate-risk, insurance-risk, finance-investing

There is a lot of momentum in agtech right now around investing at the intersection of ag and climate– and inevitably, many conversations start with a focus on how to measure impact. The problem we’ve been thinking about lately-- this conversation often gets stuck on the measurement challenge. In our perspective, the real opportunities go beyond just measuring the impact of decisions like practice changes. The future is in taking actions that meaningfully mitigate climate risks to agriculture.

To dig into this challenge, we’re joined this week by Cullen Gunn, CEO and Executive Director of Kilter Rural, which has been operating in the natural capital space since 2004, specifically investing in rural landscapes, water, and ecosystem protection.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

Companies: Kilter Rural • Topics: climate-risk, natural-capital, finance-investing, ag-data

We’ve talked and thought a lot about autonomy this year, and despite what we think are some promising developments, overall, we continue to be struck by just how hard it is to bring solutions to market. From the technology to the use case, from the regulations to data, there are barriers and problems to solve in every direction.

So today we’re covering a ton of ground to understand why bringing autonomous solutions to agriculture is so hard. First, we talk to Connie Bowen of Farmhand Ventures, who is not particularly bullish on the near term viability of full autonomy, and has instead chosen to focus on what she calls “collaborative robotics”. Then we check in with Ray Russell, Principal Hardware Engineer at Locomation on specifically why technical problems stand in the way of progress in the autonomous space. Finally, we check in briefly with Kevin Andrews, Strat Marketing Manager for Autonomy at Trimble Agriculture to understand how more established equipment players are thinking about tackling autonomy’s biggest challenges.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

The information in this post is not investment advice or a recommendation to invest. It is general information only and does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or needs. Before making an investment decision you should read the information memorandum and seek financial advice from a professional financial adviser. Whilst we believe Information is correct, no warranty of accuracy, reliability or completeness is given, except for liability under statue which cannot be excluded.

Topics: autonomy-robotics, ag-tech-adoption, business-model, venture-startups

We’ve been thinking a lot recently about how much the world of agtech has changed over the last two decades, and how companies, and more importantly, their customers, are adapting to an increasingly digitally native world. For years, the focus was on educating farmer-customers and post-sales training. But today, sophisticated growers tell their tech partners, and their peer networks, what they want, need, like, and dislike about their tools, often in real time.
Today we dig into this transition, which we think of as the shift in agtech from ‘buyer beware’ to ‘seller beware’. First, we talk to Leet Wilksch of Agbyte, who sits on both sides of the buyer/seller table as farmers have evolved from tech skeptics to discerning buyers. Then, we gain some industry perspective from Jason McNeice and Darren Walford of Trimble Agriculture.

For more information and resources, visit our website.

Topics: ag-tech-adoption, business-model, ag-data, ag-retail

Today we're tackling part two of our future of Nitrogen fertilizer discussion, focusing on the realm of business models and strategies. We chat with two companies exploring how we might reimagine the way farmers around the world buy and sell this critical input, including through distributed, rather than centralized, supply chains.

We’ll continue our conversation with Bill Brady, CEO and Director at Kula Bio and Charlie Day, CEO at Jupiter Ionics* We also add in some on the ground perspective around how farmers are handling the pressures of the fertilizer market right now by chatting with Jason McNeese, software specialist for the Asia Pacific region at Trimble Agriculture, and Darren Walford, APAC Sales Manager for Trimble Global Positioning.
In this episode, our guests speak about:

A future of small scale production of N, and how farmers have reacted to potential changes away from today’s centralized model
What benefits, especially in terms of Scope-3 emissions, might be realized by thinking differently about how and where fertilizer is made
How new N companies are tackling the challenge of creating trustworthy brands and products in the face of the many false starts in the fertilizer space.

For more useful resources please visit our website.

*Disclaimer: Jupiter Ionics is a portfolio company of Tenacious Ventures

This episode is brought to you in partnership with Trimble Agriculture, who are building technology to make farming better through precision.

Companies: Kula Bio, Jupiter Ionics • Topics: fertilizer, ag-inputs, business-model, climate-risk

This is the first episode in our series on the future of fertilizer, starting with Nitrogen - the N in NPK.

Russia’s war in Ukraine has collided with natural gas supply chain disruptions and sent the price of fertilizer skyrocketing. But, this isn’t the least of the crop nutrient industry’s problems. It’s a space renowned for being complex and confusing. It also relies on an emissions-intensive value chain that has been around now for more than a century.

Today’s episode looks at two different visions for the future of nitrogen fertilizer. Our guests are Charlie Day, CEO of Jupiter Ionics, and Bill Brady, CEO of Kula Bio. Both lead teams that are attempting to bring cutting edge nitrogen production methods to market.

Charlie and Bill join to speak about:

• Reducing the chemical intensity of production - How new approaches to producing nitrogen work and why they are key to a cleaner industry.
• Reinventing nitrogen fertilizer - Why reinventing fertilizer production makes sense
• Scaling the science - Why scaling production from grams to tonnes is so tough, let alone trying to get it into the hands of customers.
  
• Designing for adoption - What Charlie and Bill have learned from other novel ag inputs that failed to fit into the production systems of farmers.

We’ll follow up with a Part 2 on the future of N - stay tuned! For more useful resources, visit our website.

Companies: Jupiter Ionics, Kula Bio • Topics: fertilizer, ag-inputs, climate-risk, innovation

For a year that has already seen so much downside for US farmers in the form of extreme weather - from droughts to soaring temperatures - there’s another risk looming: rising interest rates.

Adapting to an increasingly unpredictable and extreme climate is not cheap or easy. For farmers planning for the resilience and longevity of their business, the intersection of climate and fiscal risk has us wondering: how are farmers financing future growth, and where does resilience to climate change factor in?

This week’s bonus episode gets into the details of how one farmer is planning for growth in the midst of enormous uncertainty. Clay Govier is a multi-generational farmer in Nebraska growing a diversified mix of grains, and he joins to speak about:

• Extreme weather in 2022 - What Clay’s exposure to heat and drought has meant for his business this year
• Financing resilience - What financing options Clay and his family have used for generations, and what is driving change in the future
• Generational transition - Why the $500B of US farmland changing hands in the next 10 years is driving new strategic thinking from farmers
• Alternative financing models - What the risks, opportunities, and skepticism looks like toward new modes of finance

For more useful resources, visit our website.

Topics: climate-risk, farm-economics, finance-investing, insurance-risk