As we gather steam in the New Year, our search is on for startups to apply for the fifth cohort of the AgFunder GROW Impact Accelerator! As always, our focus is on technologies we believe have the greatest potential to drive transformative change across our global agrifood system. This year we’ve identified six such focus areas (see image).
Reflecting on the recent #cop28 summit and its Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems & Climate Action (https://lnkd.in/gMSf75h5), it got me thinking about which of our focus areas might deliver the most promising, impactful solutions to the complex interplay between food systems and climate change.
For my money, the ‘carbon market solutions’ category, while broad-based, has great potential to shift the needle on climate change and shape a more resilient food system. Decarbonisation is obviously top of mind for many corporations and indeed investors today. For that reason, I’d expect startups developing unique products or employing innovative business models in this space to receive strong interest... Having said that, there's not yet a clear and definitive framework for carbon markets, so the challenge is on for startups to demonstrate clear regulation, standardization, and transparency frameworks, without which investors will be understandably cautious about directing funds.
‘Carbon solutions’ tends to be a bit of a catch-all, and within this vertical one of the areas I think we should be looking at more closely is the upstream “agbiotech” arena; in particular, the ability to leverage novel biotechnologies to engineer plants and inputs along the agricultural value chain to function better, grow stronger, and perhaps sequester carbon in the process? I’d love to hear which of our focus categories you feel will achieve the most bang for the agrifoodtech investment buck in pursuit of the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Are you the startup we’re looking for? Apply for the AgFunder GROW Impact Accelerator by 25 Feb: https://lnkd.in/gD6SeJ99
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