Tesco relaunches Agri-tech Challenge to fast-track innovation onto UK farms
Retail giant introduces new two-track model to help early-stage and market-ready agtech scale across its supply chain
Start-ups
Start-up profile
Why BBLeap believes crop spraying is fundamentally broken
Dutch agtech founder Peter Millenaar argues that conventional spraying misses up to 20% of crops – and says only plant-level precision will deliver the next leap in agricultural productivity
Start-up profile
Can Arevo reinvent fertiliser for a volatile world?
A Swedish start-up promising near‑zero nitrogen leakage is betting that soaring fertiliser prices, stricter EU regulation and geopolitical instability will finally push farmers to rethink how nutrients are delivered to crops
Bayer backs Norwich Research Park programme to help agri‑biotech start-ups bridge the Series A gap
Bayer has become the first corporate sponsor of Norwich Research Park’s new BioTransitions programme, raising hopes that more UK agri‑food biotech start-ups will receive the targeted support they need to scale from seed funding to Series A – and avoid...
AI in Brazil’s ag sector: The Yield Lab Latam taps into opportunity with forthcoming fund
Brazilian farmers’ reliance on WhatsApp is laying the ground work for an AI agricultural revolution in the country
Leaps by Bayer’s Derek Norman: Why agtech needs to learn to fail faster
With capital tightening and exits slow to materialise, Leaps by Bayer’s Derek Norman argues that agtech must adopt a tougher, more disciplined mindset – testing to fail early, not to validate success – if it wants to remain investable
Start-up profile
Nanomnia: Delivery science is becoming the deciding factor for next‑generation biologicals
As peptides, dsRNA and other fragile biological actives move closer to market, Italian nano‑biotech Nanomnia believes growth will increasingly come from developers who need delivery to be enabling, not incremental
SOSV’s Po Bronson: “I’m betting on the chaos factor going up”
As climate stress squeezes farmer margins and fractures the global food system, SOSV’s Po Bronson believes rising pain could finally accelerate agtech adoption. But only if the sector learns to fund innovation beyond venture capital and embraces...
Ecorobotix invests $50M to scale US assembly of its ultra‑precise ARA sprayer
Swiss precision‑ag specialist Ecorobotix will assemble its flagship ARA sprayer in Kansas as part of a $50 million expansion, creating 80 jobs and accelerating the rollout of plant‑level crop protection technology tailored for the demands of US specialty...
World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit San Francisco 2026
Video: Reservoir Farms showcases ag innovation in action during grand opening
Reservoir Farms is bringing the agtech start-up community together in Salinas, California — creating the future of farming in the process
World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit San Francisco 2026
4 trends reshaping agtech: How start-ups, investors, companies are navigating a tough year
AgTechNavigator Editors Ryan Daily and Oliver Morrison unpack the top takeaways from the 2026 edition of the World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit in San Francisco
Start-up profile
Rainbow Crops: The VIB spin‑off using genome editing and AI to reinvent crop breeding
Belgium’s VIB institute, known for generating world‑class plant biotech companies, believes it has found its next success story in Rainbow Crops; a start‑up combining multiplex genome editing, AI and advanced phenotyping to deliver climate‑resilient,...
Exclusive
Managing commodity volatility: Helios AI expands insights platform to help buyers
Commodity insights platform provider Helios AI is helping buyers make sense of supply chain volatility, whether it is climate change or geopolitical impacts
AI spraying start-up AgZen closes $10m Series B round with Syngenta’s support
AgZen’s commercial scale up continues, with the AI-based precision spraying company anticipating to cover 2 million acres in 2026 across three continents
UK start-up raises $3.8m to develop safer, next‑gen herbicide to replace glyphosate
Bindbridge aims to commercialise AI‑designed molecular glues that could unlock entirely new herbicide modes of action, with US and Brazil markets seen as the fastest near‑term opportunities
Start-up profile
Agtech’s biggest bottleneck isn’t hardware – It’s skilled people
As ag equipment becomes more advanced, the skills gap in rural regions is widening. Questr believes training local technicians, not new tools, will unlock the next wave of agtech adoption
From the Dead Sea to Brazilian corn fields: How PlantArcBio creates drought-resilient crops
Israeli biotech and gene-editing company PlantArcBio is partnering with Agroceres Group subsidiary Helix Sementes e Biotecnologia to develop drought-resilient corn for the South American market
Climate-resistant aquaculture: Smolt produces record-size heat-tolerant cherry salmon
Japanese aquaculture firm Smolt Inc. has successfully cultivated farmed cherry salmon twice the usual size by using a heat-tolerant, selectively bred strain and an all-female triploid system.
Investor profile
Better Food Ventures: Silicon Valley’s playbook can work for ag
As agtech investment cools and AI dominates attention, Better Food Ventures is betting on digital tools, physical AI, and smarter data governance to unlock real value for the farm sector
Intelligent irrigation: How agtech start-up Agro-AI helps farmers manage water resources
Agtech start-up Agro-AI is positioning itself as the missing link between growers’ current irrigation systems and precision agriculture
Protecting plants with biopolymers: How this start-up is shielding coffee from climate change
Biopolymers are keeping plants safe from overheating, while not interrupting photosynthesis
Why agtech start-ups failed last year – and a playbook for 2026
Analysis claims last year’s collapses stemmed from structural cost‑adoption mismatches – not broken technology – and outlines where disciplined growth will re‑emerge
Shaping outcomes: Funding differences steer agtech development across emerging markets
Agtech startups in emerging markets are developing along divergent paths as funding differences determine which solutions attract capital and achieve viable exits.
Improving soil health, peanut production with microbes: ProGro Bio launches Rhizol JumpStart, Phoenix
ProGro Bio’s product pipeline is humming, with the bio-inputs company launching two products ahead of the 2026 U.S. growing season
Livestock health monitoring start-up Barnwell Bio closes $6m seed round
Can technology used to fight Covid be the next best defense against a livestock disease outbreak?
‘Difficult, if not impossible’: Selling to smallholders a dead end for agtech in Africa
African agtech will struggle to attract investment as long as business models rely on smallholders as paying customers, warns one agtech CEO.
Agtech has great innovation but ‘lacks integration’ to unlock greater impact
Agtech innovation is advancing rapidly, but the sector is falling short on integrating solutions in ways that can drive agriculture forward productively and sustainably.
AI, biotech, climate response: Korea reveals $160m R&D investment plan across five key areas
South Korea’s agriculture ministry has outlined a U$162.2m research and development push targeting five key areas including AI-driven farming, biotechnology, and climate resilience.
Biographica’s ‘pharma playbook’ for crops draws seed funding and BASF | Nunhems tie-up
From drought tolerance to disease resistance, Biographica says its AI can slash crop development timelines by five years. Investors and seed giants are buying in
Saudi Arabia looks East: China gains expanding opportunities with the right market approach
A Saudi agri-food expert says China’s agri-food tech players stand to benefit from the kingdom’s growing demand for scalable, climate-adapted solutions – but only if they can shift their long-held mindsets.
Sprout at scale: Ubiquity targets global collaborations for food innovations based on rapid germination tech
Taiwan-based Ubiquity is seeking global partners to co-develop new food and ingredient products using its proprietary rapid germination technology.
‘Google Maps for plant science,’ How Foray uses AI, biotech to develop new varieties
Foray Bioscience secured a commercial partnership with tissue culture chestnut nursery West Coast Chestnut, as the agtech company seeks funding to further scale up its AI and biotech technology
The missing link: Modern Village Foundation bridges agtech adoption gap for smallholders
India-based Modern Village Foundation (MVF) aims to close the adoption gap by delivering affordable agtech services to smallholder farmers through its unique model.
From worm pits to waveforms: Start-up hopes to revolutionise soil health monitoring with sound
As regenerative agriculture gains momentum, UK-based Soil Acoustics has unveiled a handheld tool that uses sound to assess soil biodiversity – offering farmers a faster, more scientific alternative to traditional tests
Start-up profile
Regeno’s AI-powered platform aims to simplify farm assurance and compliance
Spun out of Founders Factory and Nesta’s venture builder programme, UK-based Regeno has pivoted from helping small farms access subsidies to tackling the broader challenge of compliance and record-keeping. CEO Sven Poppelman explains how the company’s...
The most talked about start-ups of 2025
From AI‑designed crop varieties and RNA crop protection to virtual fencing, laser soil scanners and extremophile microbes, here are the breakout agtech start‑ups of last year winning attention for solving hard, near‑term farm problems while attracting...
‘Bury this box, power your farm’: The start-up making soil a clean energy source
A six-inch box buried in the soil might hold the key to powering agriculture’s digital future. So believes UK-based Bactery, which is pioneering bacteria-powered “soil batteries” that generate clean, continuous energy from the natural activity of...
‘Unit economics do not work everywhere,’ Growcer CEO on making indoor ag profitable
Growcer is taking a prudent approach to growth and capital, as the Canadian indoor ag company scales up with the help of Mars Discovery District
From compaction to resilience: The capsule that hopes to transform soil health
Born from Imperial College and Royal College of Art’s innovation labs, Muju Earth is tackling one of agriculture’s toughest challenges of soil degradation with Aeropod, a biodegradable capsule designed to restore soil health and cut costs. Its mission:...
Next phase: BugBug advances commercial development, targets grapes and sugarcane
Agtech firm BugBug aims to debut commercial version of AI-powered insect detector next year as it zeroes in on high value crops such as grapes and sugarcane.
Ÿnsect’s collapse raises big questions: Is feed and fertiliser the future of insect farming?
The liquidation of France’s Ÿnsect – once a poster child for insect protein – fuels debate over which business model will define the sector’s future: industrial-scale insects for human food, or smaller, more diversified systems focused on animal feed and...
‘The Olympic village of agtech’ cuts ribbon on second site, toasts California’s wine country
Reservoir Farms expands its presence with a facility in the heart of California’s wine country
From lab to livestock: Why ProtonDx took its rapid diagnostic tech beyond human health
UK start-up ProtonDx, creator of the Dragonfly platform, hopes to redefine animal health diagnostics. After developing rapid molecular testing in human medicine, the Imperial College London spin-out saw a critical gap in agriculture – where waiting days...
Why Bayer is partnering with Elaniti to unlock soil microbiome insights
Bayer’s Crop Science Division has teamed up with UK agritech start-up Elaniti to harness the power of soil biology and artificial intelligence. The goal? To help farmers improve crop performance and sustainability by decoding the hidden signals in the...
Arginine meets phosphate: New system promises ‘predictable and consistent yields’ start-up says
Swedish company Arevo introduces Arginex, a molecularly defined crop nutrition technology that combines arginine with phosphate to deliver consistent performance, reduce nitrogen waste, and help farmers move away from mineral fertilisers
Rigid loan rules ‘risk killing UK innovation’ warns Wootzano as it fights for survival
Despite growing orders, British agri-robotics firm Wootzano is facing imminent closure after a Scottish court froze its bank accounts following a winding-up petition filed by Innovate UK Loans Limited
2025 World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit Mexico City
Nestlé turns to Spade for dairy supply chain intelligence in Mexico
Spade is building a digital platform to aggregate data from across the agrifood supply chain, providing insight to farmers on how best to manage their operations
Tractor Junction: The start-up bringing transparency to India’s $50bn rural machinery market
While most agtech firms chase high-tech innovation, Tractor Junction is tackling the basics – helping millions of Indian farmers access tractors, financing, and fair prices through a fast-growing digital and physical marketplace
5 start-ups wanted: BEAM Circular Accelerator opens submissions for 2026 cohort
A biotech start-up founder turned investor is sharing his experience and supporting the next generation of innovators by helming an accelerator programme focused on the circular bioeconomy
Asia Pacific Agri-Food Innovation Summit 2025
Bio bug buster: Pyrone Systems sets sights on SEA’s high-value crops with EPA approval on the horizon
US-based Pyrone Systems is preparing to expand into South East Asia as its biopesticide nears Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approval, targeting high-value speciality crops and demand for biological solutions