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Meet the 12 Food and Ag Startups From Village Capital’s New Cohort

Written by Ben Wrobel | Apr 13, 2018 8:20:02 AM

Village Capital manages the longest-running program in the United States for startups building a more sustainable, healthy and accessible food and agriculture system.

Here are the twelve startups taking part in Food and Agriculture US 2018, which we're running in partnership with Campbell Soup Company, QBE and UBS this spring.

 

Learn more about these companies here.

Why Food and Ag?

The world’s population is expected to reach nine billion people by the year 2050. As a global community we’ll need to find a way to feed a growing population, without depleting land and water resources in the process.

At the turn of the century, food and agriculture innovation was stuck in the mud: farmers and suppliers were using the same technologies and processes they’d used for a century, and investors weren’t paying much attention to new ideas.

That’s changed. Big data and access to computing power have opened up a new world of ideas around the way we grow and transport food. Consumers are paying more attention to where their meals are from. And as the global middle class continues to swell, we’ll need to find a way to pull off a daunting triple challenge: how to produce more food with less land and less water, at a lower cost. Entrepreneurs can help.

We’re excited about the twelve startups in Food and Agriculture: US 2018. Each one is spearheading a new model of innovation in the food industry. Our program will help these entrepreneurs sharpen their business case for investment through:

  • One-on-one time with investors, mentors and potential customers
  • Access to our VIRAL Framework to assess their strengths and weaknesses
  • Two startups will receive offers of $75,000 investment from VilCap Investments at the end of the program

Learn more here about trends we’re seeing in food and ag here, and reach out to meet the companies during one of our workshops (in Chicago, IL, Raleigh, NC, or Davis CA) by emailing alex.arrivillaga@vilcap.com.

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