’20
INVESTMENT REPORT
2020 ASEAN
AgriFoodTech
A
global
agrifood tech accelerator
with a focus on impact and sustainability
GROW is Southeast Asia’s first dedicated
agrifood tech accelerator exploring new
frontiers across the whole food value
chain.
We support extraordinary founders
developing
transformative technologies
who want to achieve global growth and
make a positive impact in the food system.
www.gogrow.co
2020 ASEAN AGRI-FOODTECH FUNDING REPORT | AGFUNDER.COM
4
INTRODUCTION
ASEAN
AgriFoodTech in
2020
It is our pleasure to present you with the AgFunder ASEAN
Agrifoodtech Investing Report 2020. This is the first report
we’ve published on the agrifoodtech startup ecosystem in
Southeast Asia - one of the world’s fastest-growing
markets.
ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations)
comprises 10 countries with a combined population of 661
million people and a regional GDP of $9.73 trillion.
A growing, urbanized middle class has led to a wide
expansion of choice in terms of dining-out options and
food shopping channels, as well as ways of having
prepared food and groceries delivered to homes and
workplaces.
Consumer demand for animal-derived proteins, processed
foods, and fruits and vegetables from around the world is
on the up. Innovative solutions such as indoor farming,
robotics, and alt-protein are looking increasingly important
for meeting the region’s nutritional needs.
This is reflected in our venture investment data for 2019,
which shows a clear preference for downstream, close-to-
consumer segments among investors.
A total of $423 million was invested into Southeast Asian
agrifoodtech startups in 2019, across 99 deals. The largest
category in terms of both investment volume and number
of transactions was In-Store Restaurant & Retail Tech,
closely followed by Online Restaurants & Mealkits and
eGrocery.
Despite rapid economic development throughout the
bloc, agriculture remains a key industry and source of
employment in most of its member states. ASEAN is a
leading exporter of various agri-commodities, including
rice, palm oil, and seafood. Much of the region’s
agriculture is undertaken by low-income smallholders with
restricted access to modern technological innovations in
farming.
Further development of the region’s agriculture industry
needs to put these smallholders front and center. This
presents a wealth of opportunity for tech entrepreneurs in
areas such as farm inputs and financial services.
- Michael Dean & Jack Ellis, AgFunder
2020 ASEAN AGRI-FOODTECH FUNDING REPORT | AGFUNDER.COM
5
SPECIAL THANKS
Cover & Section Images
Special thanks to the portfolio companies of AgFunder and GROW
Future Fields, from Canada, is a biotech
company working to help commercialize
sustainable, affordable cultured meat
products.
Learn More
Singrow, from Singapore, uses state-of-
the-art technology to grow novel, fresh fruit
with an affordable price in tropical areas,
starting with strawberries.
Learn More
Back of the Yard Algae Sciences, from the US, develops
and commercializes algae-based proteins for the
manufacture of plant-based meats, for use as
biostimulants in vertical farming, and as media or sera for
cellular agriculture.
Learn More
NanoLambda, from South Korea, is
developing the world’s smallest optical
spectrometer for non-destructive and non-
invasive agrifood quality monitoring.
Learn More
Intello Labs, from India, is using AI and
multispectral tools to make quality
monitoring and grading solutions for
agrifood commodities.
Learn More
2020 ASEAN AGRI-FOODTECH FUNDING REPORT | AGFUNDER.COM
6
Sources & Methodology
SOURCES
Data Sources & Curation
Utilizing advanced machine-learning algorithms and artificial
intelligence to help identify and categorize agrifood tech
startups, our database has grown to over 36,000
companies,
with new startups and historical data being added each day.
The raw data for the AgriFoodTech Funding Report comes from
Crunchbase, which gathers publicly available information such
as press releases and US Securities and Exchange Filings, as
well as crowdsourcing directly from the industry. AgFunder
contributes a significant portion of raw data through its own
data collection methods that include private communications
with investors and companies.
The raw data is then painstakingly curated by the AgFunder
team to ensure that it is relevant, accurate, up-to-date,
complete, and categorized according to AgFunder’s
proprietary tagging system for inclusion in our report.
We also ascribe a funding round stage (seed, Series A, Series B,
etc) to each and every round, as we believe this is the best way
to highlight the maturity of each company. Sometimes,
especially outside the US, these round codes are not readily
used by companies, so some estimations may be inexact.
We believe our database now represents the most
comprehensive and curated database of agrifoodtech
companies in Europe. Improved reporting from 2018 may
impact some of the annual comparisons.
While we are happy to share our findings, we reserve all rights
with respect to AgFunder research and this report and require it
to be fully and accurately cited when any of the data are used.
Undisclosed Financings
Of the 99 financings in our curated ASEAN data set, 41 had
undisclosed financing amounts, which could not be determined
through research or direct sources. We excluded undisclosed
financings when computing averages and median values. In
some cases, we were able to confidentially obtain financing
figures directly from investors, on the condition that they only
be included in the aggregate figures.
