A crushing pandemic and, more recently, the Ukraine war have convinced investors more than ever that the world needs to radically change how it produces, distributes and consumes food, says Adam Anders, managing partner of the international food and agriculture specialist venture capital firm Anterra Capital (“Anterra”).
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Anders: “The pandemic highlighted the fragility and adverse health impacts of our current food system: soaring prices, empty shelves in stores; the fact that unhealthy diets are a major risk factor for getting Covid; that the way we treat farm animals could trigger the next pandemic. Post our final closing, the devastating impact of the Ukraine War on the global food supply has increased the awareness among investors even further. This, plus our focus on deploying proven biotech and digital solutions to shake up the lagging Food and Ag-sector, go a long way in explaining the higher than expected interest in our second fund.”
Anterra is proud to announce the closing of its second fund, with commitments in excess of $260 million. All investors from Anterra’s first fund returned in Fund II, led by Rabo Investments and Eight Roads Ventures. This fund also welcomes an international influx of new investors, ranging from pension funds and sovereign wealth funds to family offices and tech entrepreneurs from other sectors.
Anders: ”A new crop of mainstream investors is ready to get involved. Many already believed that the advances of the Green Revolution came at a hefty price. It gave us cheap fertilizer and powerful pesticides for growing plants; and growth hormones and antibiotics in animal production. But its obsession with yield is also destroying ecosystems and our own health. The pandemic gave the final push. Investors realize they can help build a resilient and regenerative food system and make excellent returns at the same time.”
One other unexpected outcome of the pandemic is that it has changed the outlook for using biotech in food and ag. Traditionally, this has been met with substantial public resistance. But since the roll-out of mRNA vaccines, billions of people have witnessed the positive power of biotech firsthand.
Anders: “Growing public acceptance of biotech solutions and gene-editing thanks to mRNA-vaccines, is an important shift. Biotech advances will also play a critical role in making food and agriculture more resilient and less carbon intensive; from fighting and preventing infectious diseases that jump from animals to humans; to developing more sustainable crop health solutions.”