An oasis in the funding desert

Over the past 10 years, the agri-foodtech sector — industry shorthand for companies aiming to improve or disrupt the global food and agriculture industry for better efficiency and sustainability — has steadily gained attention and drawn funding, exploding from a niche market into a bloom of companies creating new ingredients, functional foods, alternative proteins and farming systems.

For better or worse, the sector has largely been funded by venture capital since its inception; right now just…