The entrepreneurs have spoken: Arable and Masienda selected for $100,000 in investment

Two agriculture companies were selected for investment — by a group of peer entrepreneurs — at the close of our Village Capital Agriculture: US 2016 program in Kentucky this month.

Princeton, New Jersey-based Arable and Los Angeles, CA-based Masiendaare our two newest peer-selected investments in Agriculture.

Our four-month Agriculture US 2016 program recently wrapped up in Kentucky. The program, run in collaboration with Blue Sky Network and The Hain Celestial Group, brought together with local partners Stephen Reily, The Owsley Brown II Family Foundation, Brown-Forman, Dendrifund, and Alltech, was focused on finding, training and investing in entrepreneurs that are building sustainable solutions across the food and agriculture supply chain in the United States.

Interest in the agtech sector has exploded in recent years, with total investments doubling to $4.6B in 2015. Despite this activity, there are several unmet challenges facing stakeholders across the food and agriculture supply chain. There are also opportunities for disruption, thanks to increasing pressure from consumers and the government on how agricultural products are grown, as well as volatile commodity markets and the effects of climate change.

Village Capital and our partners recognize that these challenges are highly interconnected, and that real solutions will require collaboration and systems-level thinking.

With this in mind, our Agriculture US 2016 cohort included ten ventures from across the value chain that are helping stakeholders provide sustainable, healthy and accessible agricultural goods to drive a better food and agriculture system — including our two new portfolio companies, who were selected for investment by their peers through a day-long ranking process (more on that process here).

We are excited to welcome Arable and Masienda to our growing food and agriculture portfolio, totaling seven investments here in the U.S. that span across the value chain and country. VilCap Investments has previously invested in other agtech companies like Spensa Technologies and IUNU as well as CPG and health food company Kuli Kuli. Other investments include Nashville-based Stony Creek Colors and Paducah, KY-based FIn Gourmet, both of whom make substantial impact on rural communities.

True to their portfolio, Arable and Masienda represent two ventures on either side of the sector: production agriculture and CPG. However, both share a sincere commitment to sustainability and hope that their innovations, while different in scope, will work together to bring healthy, accessible and thoughtfully-grown food to consumers everywhere.

Arable provides visibility into current and future field conditions so that processors can make better sales, contracting and operations decisions that increase yield and efficiencies in production.

Masienda offers the first alternative, vertically-coordinated supply chain solution for premium corn and companion products, such as beans and chiles, that is changing the latin kitchen for eaters everywhere.

The two startups were selected to receive $100,000 in investment each from VilCap Investments and our co-investors Green Spark Ventures, a Colorado-based venture fund focused on opportunities in sustainable food, agriculture and energy.

We are also very proud to have the following ventures in this year’s program, who worked together collaboratively and offered thoughtful feedback and insight: Food Origins (Salinas, CA), Growers (Raleigh, NC), Grubbable (Detroit, MI), Hazel Technologies (Chicago, IL), The Honest Bison (Los Angeles, CA), IAH Global (Kansas City, MO), PowWow Energy(Fresno, CA), and Sow Organic (Cincinnati, OH).

Village Capital Agriculture will be recruiting food and agriculture ventures again this summer.

Village Capital finds, trains and invests in entrepreneurs solving real-world problems. Learn more on our website and read our insights on Medium.