🏆 GLOCAL Game Changers 2026: Meet the Finalists
This year’s finalists reflect both the geographic and technological diversity of Latin America’s AgriFoodTech ecosystem. Their solutions span biotechnology and genetics, digital agriculture and AI, livestock technologies, new ingredients, and tools to make agricultural production more efficient and sustainable.
Around 300 startups applied from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Mexico, Uruguay and beyond. Now, 9 finalists are ready to pitch to our 2026 Jury:
- Sandra Sainz — Managing Director of Private Investments, Sonen Capital
- Alex Bondar — Partner, Acre Venture Partners
- Bruno Vitali Bello — Investment Director & Global Head of Agtech, ADM Ventures
- Tom Greene — Global Leader, Corteva Catalyst™
📅 September 2 | 4:00 PM ARG | 3:00 PM ET 💻 Live via Zoom + on-site broadcast at the Santa Fe Business Forum 👉
Register here
Join us to discover the entrepreneurs and technologies shaping the future of AgriFoodTech in Latin America.
As part of GLOCAL Game Changers 2026
The month’s standout event was our webinar with Tom Greene, Global Leader at Corteva Catalyst™: “What It Takes to Scale Innovation in Agriculture. Inside Corteva’s approach to evaluating technologies, partnering with startups, and bringing innovation to farmers,” hosted by our Partner & CFO Beatriz Ponce de LeĂłn.
Read her key takeaways here →
🌱 Also This Month: GLOCAL Joins AgTech Revolution as Ecosystem Partner
We’re proud to announce that GLOCAL is joining AgTech Revolution as an Ecosystem Partner: a new initiative bringing together key players across the AgriFoodTech ecosystem to accelerate innovation and collaboration.
Conversations that nurture the Agrifoodtech ecosystem
We were also in Rosario for AAPRESID, where we co-organized a cocktail with IICA, Embrapa and SP Ventures. It was a great opportunity to connect with founders, investors and producers from across the region. Thank you to everyone who joined, and especially to Ariadne Caballero, Vitor Mondo, SP Ventures, Embrapa and IICA.
đź’Ľ From Our Portfolio
Kilimo at World Water Week
Kilimo CEO Jairo Trad moderated a panel on financing long-term climate projects at World Water Week in Stockholm, alongside representatives from GIZ, Bonneville Environmental Foundation, the Water Resilience Coalition, and ALTAMIRA. The key takeaway: climate finance doesn’t have a capital problem, it has an origination problem. Capital exists, but what’s missing are well-prepared projects and the architectures that connect different actors around the same watershed. The question that resonated most: before asking how to finance more projects, we need to ask how to originate better investments.
Kilimo Partners with P&G to Return Over 1 Billion Liters of Water to Mexico’s Most Stressed Basins
The program aims to restore 1.05 million cubic meters of water annually to high water-stress basins in central Mexico — including the Moctezuma and Lerma rivers, which are vital to the Valle de México — by converting agricultural irrigation from flood-based to precision systems, which can reduce water use by 30% to 70%.
Puna Bio’s Founders Featured in Forbes
Elisa Bertini, MarĂa Eugenia FarĂas and Carolina Belfiore, co-founders of Puna Bio, from our portfolio, were featured by Forbes Argentina, among other researchers from CONICET, Argentina’s scientific agency, who turned their science into biotech companies. “Argentina has the potential to generate at least 100 Puna Bios,” they say.
đź“° Industry Highlights
CRISPR Licensing Is Taking Off and Moving Beyond Row Crops
Pairwise, the gene-editing startup backed by Monsanto, reports a dramatic increase in CRISPR licensing activity — a sign that gene editing is moving beyond corn and soybeans into vegetables, fruits and specialty crops. A relevant inflection point for AgriFood players watching the genomics space.
China’s DBN Targets 30% of Brazil’s Soy Biotech Market
DBN Biotech, one of China’s leading agricultural biotech firms, is advancing its strategy in Brazil with a goal of capturing at least 30% of the soy seed biotechnology market by 2038, setting up a research center in Campinas and building partnerships with local seed multipliers. A geopolitically charged signal: the same country that purchases nearly 80% of Brazil’s soy exports is now competing to control its seed technology stack.
How DeepAgro Passed Brazil’s Toughest Farming Test
Before selling a single piece of equipment in Brazil, DeepAgro spent a full year being evaluated by Amaggi — one of Brazil’s largest agribusinesses. The result: 22,097 hectares covered, 71% average reduction in herbicide use, and weed detection above 90%. The key lesson: scaling in Brazil isn’t about exporting a technology — it’s about rebuilding it from scratch for local conditions.
INFIRA Wins the UN’s Top AgriFood Innovation Prize
An Argentine biotech startup developing technology to transform annual crops into perennial varieties, won the WIPO Global Awards 2026 in the Agriculture and Food category, selected from over 1,300 applications across 120 countries. Its co-founder Dr. Renata Reinheimer was also named Best Woman Entrepreneur 2026 by WIPO. Argentine deep agri-science on the global map.
IDB Group and JICA Announce $14B Alliance to Finance Sustainable Development
The Inter-American Development Bank and Japan’s JICA announced an expanded alliance to mobilize US$14 billion in financing for sustainable development across Latin America and the Caribbean — covering climate resilience, infrastructure, and productive sectors including agriculture. A macro signal for the deployment of patient capital in the region.
Chile’s New Labelling Rules for Fertilizers and Biostimulants Take Effect
Chile rolled out new labelling requirements for fertilizers and biostimulants, raising the bar for transparency and traceability in agricultural inputs. A regulatory signal worth watching for any AgriFood company operating in or targeting the Chilean market.
🔎 Featured AgriFoodTech & ClimateTech Rounds and Deals
CropX Acquires NIR Spectroscopy Firm SCIO in Its Biggest Deal Yet
CropX, the soil intelligence platform, made its largest acquisition to date by buying SCIO, a near-infrared spectroscopy firm, adding on-the-spot soil and crop analysis capabilities to its platform — and eyeing profitability in 2027. A sign of consolidation in precision ag, where data-driven platforms are absorbing sensing and analytics capabilities to build end-to-end offerings.
Japanese Grain Giant Zen-Noh Acquires 30% of Brazil’s Grupo Cereal
Zen-Noh, the Japanese agricultural cooperative federation, acquired a 30% stake in Grupo Cereal, a Goiás-based grain company with revenues of US$1 billion last year. The Barauna family retains 70% and operational control. Another signal of Japan’s growing strategic interest in Brazil’s agricultural supply chain, following Zen-Noh’s earlier investments alongside Amaggi and Louis Dreyfus in a grain terminal in MaranhĂŁo.
🍎 Food for Thought
Cargill Ventures Is Ready to Invest Again — Here’s What They’re Looking For
After two years focused on managing its existing portfolio through the sector’s painful valuation reset, Cargill Ventures is signaling renewed dealmaking activity, with two new investments already made and more expected as the market stabilizes. Head of corporate ventures Erin VanLanduit identifies the most interesting opportunity in the gap between early-stage startups still attracting funding and later-stage companies with proven revenues. A relevant read for founders navigating the “second valley of death” between pilot and commercial scale, and for investors tracking where CVC appetite is heading in AgriFood. →
Nature Investment Has Grown 5x — and LatAm Is at the Center
A new report by Forest Trends and The Nature Conservancy shows private investment in nature grew fivefold in a decade, surpassing $14 billion deployed in 2025 — no longer a philanthropic allocation, but an emerging asset class. Latin America is the second-largest destination globally, and Nature Tech’s VC-dominated segment shows the highest return expectations at 18% average. Pulso by Antom.la digs into the report and adds an interview with the co-founder of Superorganism, the first global VC fund dedicated exclusively to biodiversity.
JPMorgan Warns Food Inflation Could Double by 2027
JPMorgan analysts warn that the collision of Strait of Hormuz geopolitical tensions and El Niño weather patterns could push food inflation to double its current levels by 2027: a macro signal that puts supply chain resilience, agricultural productivity, and food security back at the top of the global agenda.
Thanks for reading. As always, if any of these topics resonate, we’d love to hear from you.
GLOCAL TEAM
