Top investors go down on the farm

SEED CAPITAL

TWO OF the world’s leading clean technology venture capital (VC) firms have invested in a number of innovative companies that aim to make farming and food production greener.

US VC Kleiner Perkins Caulfield Byers has invested in three companies in this area. Its investee company APTwater removes nitrates from the wastewater from farms, solving a problem that is well-known here in Ireland. Harvest Power, which is already profitable and has also attracted investment from European VCs, generates energy and produces fertiliser from organic food and farm waste in the US.

Kleiner Perkins has also funded Savage River Farms, a specialist maker of healthy foods which produces a chicken substitute that is made from soy, but has the same texture and looks and tastes like the real thing.

Khosla Ventures, another Silicon Valley VC investor in clean technologies, has also backed several innovative companies in this space. Having recently backed weather insurance firm WeatherBill (now called Climate Corporation), it has also invested in Solum, a tool that enables farmers to instantly measures soil nitrate levels.

Another investee firm, Biodiscovery, uses naturally-occurring micro-organisms to improve crop quality, improve nutrient utilisation and absorption, tolerance of pests or diseases and resistance to drought or saline conditions.