Tenacious is Australia’s first and only specialist agrifood tech VC firm.

Tenacious Ventures is a dedicated agrifood tech VC firm investing in Australian seed and Series A agrifood tech startups. It announced Monday the successful closure of its first fund, Tenacious Ventures Fund I, raising $35 million. (Mirage)

Tenacious Ventures

Tenacious, founded by agrifood tech experts Matthew Pryor, co-founder of agrifood tech startup Observant [acquired by Jain Irrigation (NSE: JISLJALEQS)], and Sarah Nolet, founder of agrifood tech advisory firm AgThentic, invests in early-stage agritech startups.

The firm focuses on entrepreneurs building tech-enabled new business models that are helping agriculture transition to a carbon-neutral and climate change resilient future. These startups could be addressing any point of the agrifood value chain but should be creating globally impactful solutions in agriculture.

“We’re excited about non-traditional innovators and unique, transformational business models- in fact, we believe these are critical to achieving real impact across the food system,” said Mr. Pryor in a statement.

Tenacious has invested in startups such as waste management startup Goterra, and SwarmFarm Robotics, an autonomous agricultural vehicle platform company; Nori, a US-based carbon marketplace; Vow, a cellular agriculture company; RapidAIM, a CSIRO spin-out commercializing a digital crop protection platform; and Nowadays, a clean label sustainable protein company.

Australia’s potential for agritech

Under the terms of its fund registration, Tenacious must deploy 80% of its capital into Australian-domiciled startups at the time the fund invests.

It describes itself as a high conviction, high support, sector specialist investor.

The founders also sense a huge opportunity for Australia to export its agritech innovations and services – in addition to the export of meat, wheat, wool, and more.

“Today, the global market for agritech products and services is estimated at $500B and is expected to grow to $730B in the next three years; an annual growth rate of 8%,” the founders wrote in a January AgThentic blog. “If we choose to recognize and invest in Australia’s agritech potential, we could easily aspire to $20B or more in economic value.”

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