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📅 Coming Up Next
🚀 Live session with Corteva Catalyst™
Tom Greene (Global Leader, Corteva Catalyst) offers an inside look at how Corteva shapes its innovation strategy, partners with startups and brings new technologies to market.
📅 August 18th
🕘 2pm CDT
💻 Zoom
👉 Register
💼 From Our Portfolio
Water Efficiency to the Global Stage
Kilimo took part in the World Economic Forum / UpLink Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Dalian, China, where Co-Founder & VP of Culture Tatiana Malvasio joined the “Water Turnaround” session, reinforcing the company’s mission to help businesses and producers protect water resources through smarter irrigation decisions.
Ucrop.it Brings Farmer-Centric Data Governance to FAO Forum in Rome
Co-Founder and CTO Matias O’Keefe spoke at FAO’s High-Level Forum on AI, digitalization and data governance for food security and nutrition: “My key takeaway: the technology for positive agriculture already exists, data governance is the critical layer, and AI is here to accelerate it — but most importantly, incentives have to be aligned from grower to end product to achieve a growing, self-sustaining movement”.
ZoomAgri Joins Agrofy News Podcast to Discuss AI-Powered Grain Identification
Agustín Uranga, co-founder of ZoomAgri, explained how image-based technology can identify the unique “fingerprint” of crops such as barley, wheat, and soybeans. By analyzing a single image, the platform can determine a grain’s variety and provide more accurate, objective information for quality assessment and decision-making across the agricultural value chain.
📰 Industry Highlights
Brazil Fuels the Next Stage of Ag Biological Innovation
At World Agri-Tech São Paulo, Corteva’s biologicals business partner Brooks Coetzee called Brazil “a gateway to the world in terms of biologicals,” pointing to Corteva Catalyst’s investments in biological startups including Argentina’s Puna Bio and Brazil’s Symbiomics. The panel also highlighted Brazil’s emergence as a testing ground for new peptide-based crop solutions, with Invaio Sciences and Micropep both expanding registrations there — a signal that Brazil’s dynamic, high-pressure growing conditions are becoming the proving ground for the next generation of biologicals worldwide.
AI and Data Take Center Stage at Argentina’s AgTech Forum
The Rural Exposition in Buenos Aires hosted the 3rd AgTech Forum, organized by the Rosario Board of Trade (BCR), Sociedad Rural Argentina and Plataforma Chacra, bringing together producers and advisors to discuss how AI and data analytics are reshaping field management and the agronomist’s role. The debate comes as Argentina’s agroindustrial exports keep diversifying: the country shipped 209 different agroindustrial products between January and May 2026, putting pressure on producers to adopt precision tools to stay competitive.
New Rules Streamline Approval of Genetically Modified Microorganisms in Argentina
The country rolled out a unified set of rules for approving genetically modified microorganisms used across farming, livestock, aquaculture, forestry and agro-industry, replacing two older regulations. The update sets a 90-business-day limit for the government’s technical review and simplifies the process into a single online form. For LatAm’s agrifoodtech sector, the signal matters beyond biotech circles: with 22 of these microorganisms already approved commercially in just two years, Argentina is positioning itself as a regulatory reference point that could speed up market access and give founders and investors elsewhere in the region a model worth watching.
A $2.7B Bet on Vaca Muerta’s Spillover Into Agriculture
Pampa Energía will invest USD 2,700 million to build a granulated urea plant in Bahía Blanca (Argentina) with capacity for 2.1 million tons per year, set to become the largest in Latin America and one of the largest globally. The project aims to turn Vaca Muerta gas into fertilizer for Argentina’s agricultural sector, reducing imports and opening export opportunities.
EU Parliament Rejects Soy “High ILUC Risk” Proposal
The European Parliament rejected changes to Regulation 807 that would have classified soy as high-risk for indirect land-use change, a move that could have excluded soy-based biodiesel from EU renewable energy mandates. Celebrated by Argentina’s biodiesel industry, the decision signals how EU sustainability rules can directly reshape market access for soy, biofuels and agroindustrial value chains across Latin America.
U.S. Supreme Court Backs Monsanto in Landmark Roundup Labeling Case
In a 7-2 decision, the Court ruled that federal pesticide law preempts state-level claims that Roundup should have carried a cancer warning when the EPA had not required one, strengthening federal regulators’ role in pesticide labeling and potentially limiting thousands of similar lawsuits against agrochemical companies.
Can AI Disrupt the Seed Giants?
US startup Avalo is using AI-driven marker-assisted breeding to develop climate-resilient crops faster and cheaper than traditional programs, focusing on traits like drought tolerance that major seed companies have largely ignored. It has already partnered with Coca-Cola to breed lower-input sugarcane in Australia, and has an ambitious goal of becoming the world’s fifth-largest seed company.
🔎 Featured AgriFoodTech & ClimateTech Rounds and Deals
IDB Lab Brings Precision Ag to Guyana
IDB Lab, the venture arm of the Inter-American Development Bank, partnered with the University of Guyana to bring precision agriculture, AI and smart sensors to Guyanese farmers.
BNDES Backs Early-Stage VC in Brazil
Brazil’s state development bank BNDES committed R$63 million ($12.2M) to early-stage fund Antler Brasil I, with total commitments expected to reach R$250 million with additional backing from Finep, BRDE, Badesul and Fomento Paraná.
Chipotle Expands Cultivate Next Portfolio
Chipotle has now backed six startups through its $100 million Cultivate Next venture fund, with the latest additions — Benchmark Labs, IMIO, Clean Crop Technologies, Athian, SIMPLi and PopID — spanning AI-powered weather forecasting, regenerative agriculture, emissions verification and biometric payments.
Rockefeller Foundation Commits $4M to Rebuild the Rural Economy Through Better Farmland
The Foundation invested in real assets manager Alder Point Capital, which acquires under-managed US farmland and timberland and brings it into responsible stewardship, treating land stewardship as both an environmental and economic opportunity.
Biosphere Picks Up NovoNutrients Assets in Gas Fermentation Shakeout
Biosphere, a California startup developing UV-sterilized bioreactors, acquired the assets of defunct gas fermentation startup NovoNutrients, gaining operational data and a strain bank of hydrogen-oxidizing bacteria to support its Department of War-backed portable protein program.
AgriFood Signals Roundup
Other notable moves this month: InvestEco closed its fourth fund on C$106M; Bayer will consolidate its US glyphosate business into a new entity, Ruveon; and Nestlé announced plans to remove artificial colors from its global portfolio.
🍎 Food for Thought
⭐ From GLOCAL: “Deep Innovation, Limited Capital Define Argentina’s Agrifoodtech Opportunity” — Read in english on AgFunderNews → | Leer en español en diario Perfil → GLOCAL Founder & Managing Partner Bernardo Milesy argues that Argentina’s macro constraints have produced a generation of agrifoodtech startups built around capital efficiency, resilience, and global scalability from day one — precisely the traits global investors now prioritize. The piece maps the ecosystem’s strengths (ZoomAgri, Ucrop.it, Kilimo, Puna Bio and others) and points to GLOCAL’s Clean AgriFoodTech Playbook as a framework for the sector’s next phase.
Agtech VC Deal Count Collapsed in H1 2026 — Rebound Unlikely This Year PitchBook data shows agtech VCs did just 263 deals in H1 2026 for $2.4B invested, a steep drop from 2025. Precision ag led the quarter, capturing about a third of all agtech venture value. Analysts now expect a rebound only in 2027, once exits pick back up.
Finance Is the Missing Piece in Regenerative Agriculture
HowGood’s Ethan Soloviev argues the sector has largely proven its case; the real barrier now is unlocking far greater capital flows to farmers through collaboration between banks, insurers and food companies, with solutions likely to emerge at the regional rather than global level.
Forbes Argentina explores how AI-enabled, unipersonal businesses are scaling faster than ever, with some entrepreneurs betting on becoming the first single-person, billion-dollar company. GLOCAL’s Bernardo Milesy and Endeavor Argentina’s Julia Bearzi both weigh in with their perspectives on the trend.
Thanks for reading, and if any of these topics resonate, we’d love to hear from you.
GLOCAL TEAM
