Climate Tech 360 Investing in Agtech and Agmarkets
This episode explores the investment focus of Syngenta Group Ventures, Syngenta’s venture capital group with Michael Lee. The conversation covers an overview of what Michael categorizes as Agtech vs Agmarkets, as well as the technologies within those segments that are of particular interest to the company. We discuss exit opportunities for companies in these segments as well as the historical average valuation at exit and whether there is a cap. The episode concludes by discussing the importance of a startup being differentiated in this segment to create value.
Takeaways
Syngenta is a multi-billion, Chinese-owned agrochemicals company, with 50,000+ employees.
Syngenta Group Ventures does not focus broadly on climate tech but on things that support farmers or farming.
Several different technologies are of interest to the group, both in the Agtech and the Agmarkets segments, and they typically avoid investing in companies that require high capex and have high energy needs.
The average valuation of the top 10 acquisitions in Agtech over the past decade is approximately 300 million. This would imply, for a 3x return, that the final round valuation would be capped at 100 million (at Series B).
Contact Us
Guest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-lee-65084/
Email us: info@climatetech360.com