The group of agricultural producers who put together the Innventure fund, to promote technological projects in agriculture.
Vision to invest, value to invest. With these two challenging slogans, a group of agricultural producers presented the Investment fund invention, promote technological projects related to the sector.
The proposal was born in the context of one of the programs of Argentina Association of Direct Seeding Producers (Aapresid), the organization that this week holds its annual congress in Rosario, with the participation of over 6,000 producers, businessmen, service providers, students and communicators.
The presentation was formally done this Wednesday, but there is a previous story. A group of Aapresid partners saw “the need to create a vehicle that would allow them to support and be part of the companies of the future” and 16 of them initially committed to the initiative.
Jorge Gambalemember of the technical committee, and one of the co-founders, explained that “as producers it is not easy to find options to diversify and many times we end up in properties that do not generate returns or benefit agriculture ”.
While, Mayco Mansilla, manager and o-founder of Innventure, explained that they seek to “unite agriculture with entrepreneurs, the two most successful sectors in the country, recognized in the world”. He is convinced that “this integration can transform Argentina into a global leader in agri-food technologies and agriculture in the most efficient and sustainable in the world “.
Y José Luis Alonsoanother co-founder, highlighted that in this scheme they have “an alternative to invest in solutions for our sector and to be able to do it professionally, having an investment committee of excellence”.
The other names that are added as founding members to the three mentioned are: Marcelo Torres, Nicolas Bronzovic, Facundo Avellaneda Huergo, Agustín Torriglia, Lucrecia Salgado, Roberto Santos, José Galvano, Agustín Galleano, Sebastián Bordenave, Alejandro Astaita, Martín Lahitte, Gabriel Sandín and Andrés Comba.
However, dozens of adherents from different parts of the country quickly joined in, and enthusiasm increased after Wednesday’s presentation.
Jorge Gambale and Mayco Mansilla present the Innventure fund at the Aapresid congress.
Among all, aspire to generate a great ecosystem of innovationthanks to powerful strategic alliances with Endeavor, the largest community of high impact entrepreneurs in the world, and Tanoira Casagne, the leading law firm in the sector in the country.
Even the background seeks to provide differential value to technology-based companies or startups having a vast network of manufacturers to validate technologies that are also users of the same.
A qualified investment committee
Those in charge of selecting the projects to invest in are qualified professionals:
● Alejandro Larosa, CEO and founder of Agrofy and Fyo, the country’s leading agricultural virtual trading platform.
● Carlos BeckReference AgTech with extensive experience in the corporate world and representative in Argentina of the first agricultural unicorn, Indigo.
● Maria José Soler, Endeavor Operations Director in Rosario, MBA and AgTech professor at Austral University. Also, she is the manager of Innventure.
● Fernando Villela: formerly Dean of FAUBA, head of the Bioeconomy Program, an international reference point for sustainable agribusiness, trends and markets.
● The representatives of producers who are part of important agricultural institutions, partners of Aapresid, who know the needs of agriculture, are users of technologies and validators.
What activities are they aimed at?
As explained by its promoters, the fund It will focus on early stage startups, which develop their business in solutions with global projection and triple impact (economic, environmental and social). These solutions are based on technologies applied to agri-food chains, such as biotechnology, artificial intelligence, internet of things, big data, blockchain, sensors, among others. The average investment ticket is between US $ 100,000 and US $ 500,000 per project. It aims to finance around 15 projects.
The fund will have support for of the main ecosystem players: universities, technological and scientific institutions, business incubators and acceleratorswhether it will work together with other national and international funds with which it plans to co-invest.
Agri-food, innovation and young people
In a world of 8 billion inhabitants, not only will we need more food, healthier and safer, but also sustainable products and processes that replace petroleum derivatives and chemical synthesis, such as biomaterials, biopharmaceuticals, bioinputs, among others. .
Innovation is the way to a sustainable future. Process efficiency, reduction in the use of inputs, rational use of energy, water and fertilizers, cost reduction, traceability and obtaining new products are objectives of many of these technologies.
Innventure promoters point out that “something big is happening for Argentine agriculture. The best talents and many young people from different disciplines are thinking and developing these solutions. This, added to the great professionalism and technicality present in agri-food companies, creates the right conditions for Argentina to be a leader in these technologies and for these talents to have incentives to develop in our country “.
They believe that “investing in AgriFoodTtech is contributing to better quality of life, creation of new jobs, development of the country and the region“. And with Innventure he wants to add in this sense.
Source: Clarin
