Palo Alto, California, USA
April 13, 2016
Finistere Ventures, a California-based venture capital firm and one of the pioneers in the rapidly growing agriculture technology (Agtech) investment sector, announces the launch of a fundraising in Australia as part of a final closing of its US$150 millon Agtech fund, Finistere Ventures II.
Somerset Capital, a boutique corporate advisory and investment firm based in Melbourne, has been appointed as placement agent for the fundraising, which will target Australian institutional investors, family offices and high net worth individuals, as well as food and agriculture companies. The fundraising is expected to conclude at the end of June.
The Finistere Ventures II fund will invest in companies developing new technology solutions in food productivity, sustainability and nutrition to address ever-decreasing agricultural land resources, climate change and changing population demographics.
The fund is focused on global opportunities and will harness Finistere Ventures’ network of partners and research organizations in Australia and New Zealand, in addition to the US, Canada and Israel – all recognized for their significant pipelines of Agtech related R&D and as major agricultural producers.
Bayer and AVAC Ltd. are among strategic investors in the fund, providing Finistere Ventures with additional geographic and market expertise to identify and scale world-class technologies across the investment lifecycle. To date the fund has invested in plant science company ZeaKal, personalized nutrition app Shopwell and CropX, a cloud-based software application considered to be the world’s most advanced adaptive irrigation service and also recently backed by Robert Bosch Venture Capital GmbH and the Flex technology accelerator Lab IX.
“Technological innovation will play a crucial role in enabling Australian agriculture to capitalise on the fast growing food production demands of neighbouring Asian countries. Our fund will connect Australian agribusinesses with leading global developments in Agtech and the investment expertise of Silicon Valley,” said Finistere Ventures Partner, Arama Kukutai, previously a banker at Westpac and a former Chairman of New Zealand dairy agribusiness PKW Farms Ltd.
Dr Spencer Maughan, Finistere Ventures Partner and a former research scientist who is an Australian citizen, said: “Australia has a very high standard of scientific research and innovation, but historically a gap has existed in the capital and expertise available to commercialise these ideas. In the past year there has been a significant shift in the prioritisation of Australian agriculture and innovation in general. We see a huge and growing opportunity for growth equity financing of Agtech companies and are actively seeking to identify Australian technologies and businesses that need both capital and the strategic, technical and operating expertise that we bring as partners and investors.”
Andrew Maughan, Managing Director of Somerset Capital and an experienced food and agriculture company director, said: “Australia is a globally competitive producer of food. However to remain competitive it needs to continually look at ways to improve productivity. Development and utilisation of leading edge technologies is one important way it can do this. Somerset Capital has assisted early stage technology companies like Aconex to grow into meaningful businesses and we look forward to supporting the objectives of this exciting new investment fund.”
Richard Dickmann, Head of New Business Development at Bayer’s Crop Science division in Australia, said of the company’s investment in the fund: “The world faces difficult challenges to its food security with almost 10 billion people to feed by 2050. Our investment with Finistere Ventures complements Bayer’s vision for collaborating with others in delivering new innovation to growers to enhance yields necessary to provide access to safe and affordable food for this growing population and to meet the shifting tastes of consumers.”
“Bayer’s investment in Finistere Ventures offers another option for Australian entrepreneurs to link their innovations to global markets. As an innovation led company, Bayer believes fresh approaches and technologies for Australia’s farmer community will be critical to meeting the global challenges of tomorrow,” said Mr Dickmann.
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