Investors now want to seed Agriculture start-ups to reap rewards

Investment into agricultural technology companies or 'agtech' firms has picked up significantly since 2014. 

Funding in the agtech space in 2016 grew by 34.7% in 2016 from a year earlier and grew to $283 million in 2016 from $210 million a year earlier, according to CB Insights.

Source: CB Insights

However, even with an uptick in investment in these start-ups, the number of deals has dropped to 68 from 70 in 2015. This is primarily due to funding slowing down in the last quarter of 2016.

Q4 2016 saw a drop after six consecutive quarters of over 15 deals and over $60 million in financing. 

However, as Q1 saw the largest funding in 4 years with $103 million from 19 deals, it managed to push the investment higher during the year.

Source: CB Insights

While agtech funding in 2013 had declined from the previous year to $52 million from $97 million in 2012, it saw a huge jump in funding in 2014 to $178 million and from 33 deals in 2013 to 67 deals in 2014.

Source: CB Insights

Though seed funding is the largest part of the investment in agtech firms, it has reduced significantly since 2012 from 50% to now 37%. 

Series A funding round received 21% of the investment towards these firms and was followed by Series B funding.