The Yield Lab Europe has announced almost €50 million for its sustainable agri-food tech venture capital fund, investing in seed to Series A-stage companies in Ireland and Europe.
New investors include the European Investment Fund through the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI); Invest-NL; Allied Irish Banks plc (AIB); and new family office investors.
The Yield Lab Europe is also expanding into the Netherlands, opening a Dutch office as part of a new partnership with StartLife, the agri-food tech hub and accelerator for Wageningen University and Research, a globally recognised leader in agri-food tech innovation and sustainability.
The Yield Lab Europe is the investor-in-residence with StartLife and will be actively investing in Dutch start-ups.
Irish and European investments
The Irish fund has completed seven investments to date, including the following Irish start-ups:
- ApisProtect (protecting honey bees and biodiversity);
- MicroGen Biotech (soil health);
- Micron Agritech (livestock parasite testing);
- Equimetrics (animal health monitoring).
European start-ups include:
- N2 Applied (biogenic methane reduction/decarbonisation of livestock);
- Kaffe Bueno (coffee upcycling);
- RootWave (sustainable weed control).
The venture capital fund
The fund is focused on strong financial returns and environmental impact.
It invests in technologies that improve the environmental and carbon footprint of the food and agriculture industries, to support the vision and implementation of the European Green Deal and the European Commission’s Farm to Fork Strategy.
The fund has mapped over 2,000 agri-food tech start-ups in Europe.
The fund is also part of The Yield Lab global network, with sister funds in the US, Latin America and Asia Pacific. This provides start-ups with access to a network to enable them to scale and commercialise internationally.
Zero-carbon agriculture
Commenting on the funding, chairman Paul Finnerty said: “We believe that zero-carbon agriculture and food production is a tremendous opportunity and can be achieved by 2040.
“We have invested and will continue to invest in technologies to enable this transition. We look forward to investing in the innovation that positions Irish agriculture as being properly viewed as part of the climate solution, and not the problem.”
Alain Godard, chief executive of the European Investment Fund said: “Scaling up world-class research to advance agricultural technology, improve production, biodiversity and animal health, and adapt to a changing climate is crucial for agriculture in Ireland and Europe.