Intro

Valued at around $2.4 trillion globally, the agriculture industry took the first position among other sectors according to the number of people employed and revenue generated. Traditional subdivisions in the field include farming, cultivation, agtech, forestry, and much more. As the world's population grows, the demand for good quality food and other products increases rapidly, being an impetus for various up-to-date practices, such as hydro- and aeroponics, vertical farming, or drones-aided farming. In addition, uncontrolled utilization of non-renewable resources results in the development of sustainable agriculture, which focuses on fulfilling the present demand without irreparable harm to nature. Of all late funding rounds held in the agriculture industry over the last five years, 10.8% happened in Eastern Asia. Together, 20 VCs and corporate investors took part in 25 rounds. According to the number of rounds, they can be arranged in the following order:

Top 20 Late Investors in Eastern Asia's Agriculture Industry According to the Number of Rounds in the Last 5 Years
data provided by Unicorn Nest

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Key takeaways

  • Funds Geography - The most popular country of origin appears to be China, hosting 16 funds; the rest are located in Japan. Regarding the cities, Beijing is home to 8 of 20 firms and is followed by Hong Kong Island, Tokyo, and Shanghai. Mostly, the investments from the listed VCs are received by Chinese startups. Japan, the United States, and Israel also attract financing. For the majority of the top 20, the fund's and the project's country of origin turn out to be the same in most cases.
  • Industry Focus - Commonly, the sampled funds contribute to the Finance field. Less often, they also consider Enterprise Software, Consumer, and Hardware/Electronics sectors.
  • Important Years - While the majority of the funds began operating in 2006, the oldest one, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, dates back to 1974. Bits x Bites, which is the newest one on the list, was created in 2016. A five-year period between 2015 and 2020 showed the highest number of deals made; several funds experienced a peak in 2018. The same year was marked with the highest number of successful exits, with 2020, 2017, and 2015 running up.
  • Investments - For the sampled VCs, it is common to participate in funding twice a year, less often - 7-12 times. The least active fund took part in only 2 rounds, while the maximum for this figure is 687. The average value for the number of rounds is 132.1, the median is 92.5, and the most common value equals 6. The highest number of lead investments, 113, is around six times lower than the maximum for standard ones; its average and median, 25.8 and 5.0, are not high as well. Noticeably, some VCs never led any deals. The lead investments differ from the standard in an interval between -21.3 and 29.0 percentage points. This index averages at 9.97 and has a median of 9.59; therefore, some of the sampled firms act as lead investors more often than the others. The mode of the sampled rating equals 29.0.
  • Typical Rounds - Usually, the VCs have 3-4 partakers per round; the amount of money they allocate does not exceed 100 thousand USD. Less frequently, there are 2-3 investors and a round size of 10-50 million. The fund's average multiplier for portfolio companies ranges from zero at minimum to 225500000.0 at maximum. According to the last known valuation, its median equals 0.25, and the average value equals 12527778.26. The majority of the companies remain at a 0.0 multiple.
Overall, the top 20 late funding VCs in Eastern Asian agriculture come from China and Japan, with almost a half located in Beijing. They invest primarily in the Finance field with Enterprise Software, Consumer, and Hardware/Electronics following. Although the most common amount of money per round is less than 100 thousand, in some cases, it can reach 10-50 million dollars with 2-4 investors participating.