San Diego-based venture capital (VC) firm Radicle Growth, John Deere, and Land O’Lakes though the AgRogue platform are launching a global search for innovative start-ups focusing on the renewable economy, awarding a select few companies with up to a $10 million investment.
The Radicle Renewables Challenge is searching for companies designing innovative renewable solutions in the area of chemicals, feedstock, fuels, materials, processing and infrastructure tech, and more. Start-ups are encouraged to submit applications for the Radicle Renewables Challenge by Nov. 20, 2026.
Radicle Growth will announce the challenge winners at a later date and award them up to a $10 million equity investment either in the form of a priced funding round or a convertible note, Neal Gutterson, CTO and partner at Radicle Growth, told AgNavigator.
“The renewables economy represents a significant opportunity to create new sources of demand and value for farmers, but realizing that potential requires innovation that works across the entire agricultural value chain and through trusted retail channels,” said Jason Trusley, senior VP and chief strategy officer at Land O’Lakes, in a press release.
Addressing farmer challenges with a holistic innovation approach
Over the years, Radicle Growth hosted numerous challenges, including last year’s Radicle Inputs Innovation Challenge, which was the VC firm’s first collaboration with Land O’Lakes, Gutterson noted. The input challenge has become an evergreen challenge, with companies still sharing their innovation with Radicle Growth, he added.
By working with major strategics like Land O’Lakes and John Deere, Radicle Growth can gain their perspective on the types of solutions that they would like to see and what can help their customers, and ultimately farmers. Additionally, Radicle Growth uses these challenges as a landscaping exercise, outlining the various innovation in a particular segment, Gutterson said.
“We know how to pick companies that can be financially successful, and we have our own view about what’s strategically important. But when you talk to John Deere, when you talk to Land O’Lakes, when you talk to some of the big retail co-ops, you really get a different view on what’s important to them — to their customers,” he elaborated.
Has VC funding in agtech hit the bottom yet?
Radicle Growth continues to make investments through its AgRogue fund, including contributing to Swarm Engineering’s Series A round in June. Radicle plans to make at least one additional investment through the AgRogue fund by year-end, Gutterson noted.
This comes as venture capital (VC) investing in the agtech space remains challenged due to a number of factors, including a “not very good” environment for exits, Gutterson pointed out. Great technology is not enough to warrant a big exit, he added.
Additionally, industry watchers and investors were waiting to see what happens with some of the large ag players, like Bayer, Corteva, FMC and Syngenta, which created some uncertainty on the entire sector, he added.
“We get too excited about little green shoots and thinking, ‘oh, we turned the corner.’ I thought early 2025 was going to be the bottom, and I was wrong. So, I don’t think we’ve really seen the full bottom yet,” Gutterson elaborated.
However, this does not mean that ag innovation is not happening, and companies are not worth investing in. The firm is tracking developments in physical AI, biofertilizers, and crop protection, and how these different technologies can come together to develop a system approach to tackling farmer problems, Gutterson explained.
“Crop protection is a good example. We need new molecules. We need new ways of delivering in an advantaged way — more precision. We need diagnostics. All those pieces have to come together. This is part of what we really see as part of the problem in the last years. [There’s] a lot of point solutions, and not so much in the way of integrated programmatic solutions,” he added.
