Irish fund Yield Lab Europe is to provide almost €50m in financing for sustainable agri-food companies from seed status to Series A in Ireland and Europe.
At second close, the company’s sustainable agri-food tech venture capital fund has added new investors including the European Investment Fund, Invest-NL, Allied Irish Banks and family office investors.
The fund is also opening an office in the Netherlands as part of a new partnership with StartLife, the agri-food tech hub and accelerator for Wageningen University and Research. Yield Lab Europe is the investor-in-residence with StartLife and will be investing actively in Dutch startups.
Chairman Paul Finnerty said: ‘We believe that zero-carbon agriculture and food production is a tremendous opportunity and can be achieved by 2040. We have invested and will continue to invest in technologies to enable this transition. We look forward to investing in innovation that positions Irish agriculture as being properly viewed as part of the climate solution, and not the problem.”
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The agri-food sector globally is one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and is coming under mounting pressure to decarbonise, reduce chemical pesticides and fertilisers, reduce water pollution, reduce medications used for livestock, improve biodiversity on farms, and to move to more regenerative methods of agriculture.
Farmers are concerned about the impact of these changes on their incomes, says the company, and how they will achieve these competing demands.
Yield Lab Europe says it is investing in startups with the technologies necessary to enable this transition. “Ireland’s grass-based agricultural systems place our food at a strategic advantage in this global movement. With the right investment and technology, Irish agriculture can be a world leader in carbon neutral, sustainably produced, premium quality food,” Finnerty added.
Photo: Yield Lab Europe managing partners David Bowles (left) and Nicky Deasy with Paul Finnerty (right). (Pic: Chris Bellew/Fennell Photography)
