The end of summer is always a busy time whether we are heading back home from summer vacation, starting kids back at school, preparing for Q4, or preparing for harvest. This season seems especially busy for The Nest and our portfolio companies with key events scheduled in the regenerative agriculture space.
The Regenerative Agriculture Summit takes place in Amsterdam, September 3-5. Agricarbon is an event partner and AgFunder is a media partner for the Summit. Domaine de Graux will host Chemin28 September 5-7. And, on October 9-10, the RFSI Forum takes place in Denver, Colorado.
Join us at RFSI Forum in October 9-10, Denver, Colorado
The Nest’s Hallie Fox is a featured speaker for one of the year’s most important events, RFSI Forum. Hallie, along with David Leon of Biome Capital Partners, will be speaking in the 11:15 MT session on October 9, “Fireside Chat: Creating Investment Strategies that Embrace a Systemic Approach.”
Get 10% off your registration fee with the code “NEST10.”
The Nest, in partnership with the Schmidt Family Foundation, FarmRaise, and Kitchen Table Consultants, is also funding Farmer Scholarships for the RFSI event.
Following Hallie’s presentation, Ethan Steinberg of Propagate will be presenting an agroforestry case study at 12:15MT. Propagate will also speak at the RFSI Bootcamp on October 8. The Bootcamp is a half-day, pre-course to the RFSI Forum designed for farmers, ranchers, start-ups, emerging brands, interested in starting their fundraising journey.
The First Thirty will host a pitch session on October 9. Companies who are pre-seed or early stage and focused on accelerating and enabling regenerative agriculture and food systems, should apply by September 3 for your chance to present on the pitch stage.
Investing in Regenerative Aquaculture Series
The third podcast in the Regenerative Aquaculture Series, funded by The Nest, features Alf Gøran Knutsen, CEO of Kvarøy Arctic. The episode, “The good, bad opportunities of the multi-million-dollar salmon industry, from shooting lasers underwater to feed,” tackles the contentious topic of salmon farming and sustainability.
In case you missed the first two episodes, you can find them on the Investing in Regenerative Agriculture website:
· Sowmya Balendiran – How to turn seaweed farming into an industry? Start by farming 1000 football fields of tropical seaweed in Indonesia.
· Georg Baunach – More than half of the fish you eat is farmed: basics, potential and risks of investing in aquaculture.
Portfolio News
Propagate
It’s been a busy end of summer for Propagate between being named one of the fastest growing companies of 2024 by Inc. Propagate ranked 723 overall on the Inc. 5000 list, and 70 within their category. The Inc. 5000 alumni include entities like Microsoft, Patagonia, and Chobani.
“For me, winning the Inc 5000 award is an exciting moment for Propagate because it highlights the growing impact we're making as a trusted partner for farmland owners transitioning to regenerative agriculture,” said Ethan Steinberg, CEO and Co-Founder.
Propagate and Rodale
On August 14, Propagate presented a webinar with partner Rodale, “How Silvopasture Improves Animal Well-Being, Ecosystem Health, and Farm Profitability.” Look for the webinar to be posted soon in the Rodale archive.
Farm Planning for Agroforestry Event
Propagate will be hosting an education event in Ithaca, New York, on September 6-9. The event, “Farm Planning for Agroforestry,” offers programming for producers and land managers who are interested in the Expanding Agroforestry Project. Darren Doherty, CPAg (AIA) of Regrarians, will lead the education sessions, and the agenda includes farm tours of three agroforestry projects.
Historic Raise for Monarch Tractor
In late July, Monarch Tractor announced $133million in Series C funding, led by global impact investor Astanor and HH-CTBC Partnership, L.P., with additional support from prominent investors, including At One Ventures, PMV and The Welvaartsfonds. The funding round was the largest ever for an agricultural robotics company.
Buoyant Ventures On AI and Data Centers
Laura Dyer, Principal of Buoyant Ventures, was featured in an article in Venture Capital Journal, “Datacenters: A massive innovation opportunity.” The article is the first of five parts in a series that examines decarbonizing data centers while addressing the energy demand from AI. Buoyant highlights their investment in a cutting-edge data warehouse platform called Ocient that can make data deployments up to 90% more energy efficient.
Learn more about Buoyant’s efforts to reduce the energy intensity of AI in their analysis, Greening the Cloud.
Walden Mutual Success Stories
Walden Mutual’s latest partner stories celebrate the link between access to capital and building a healthier and more diverse food system. The stories include the joy of Wildgrain bread, Apothékary’s cleaner herbal alternatives to supplements, and nutrition-dense Stone House Grain that feeds the animals who feed us.
Blume Equity Recognition
Blume was nominated as a finalist for not just one, but two ESG RealDeals awards, Impact Investor of the Year: Environmental and Environmental Deal of the Year for Normative.
Media and Posts
· Quick Organics: Navigating the Transition to Organic
· AquaSpark: 2023 Sustainable Blue Economy Finance Initiative Report
· Trace Genomics: DNA Wanted: Dead or Alive. What does “dead DNA” in the soil mean for Trace data?
Opportunities
· Edacious is hiring a Senior Scientist –Analytical Chemistry
· Astanor features 53 job openings across their portfolio
· Omnivore posted 205 jobs across 34 of its portfolio companies
· Trace Genomics has seven job openings, including Enterprise Account Executive
· Monarch Tractor has four job openings including Director of Product
From the Farm
The team at Domaine de Graux will be busy this fall with harvesting and events, including hosting the Chemin28 Leadership retreat, “Humus and humans: at the roots of the living economy.”