A total of 655 venture capital (VC) funding deals worth $7 billion were announced in the global agriculture industry during 2022. This is a growth of 13.5% in terms of deal volume compared to the previous year while the total value declined marginally, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “VC funding activity in the agriculture sector still seems to be at nascent stage when compared to other sectors such as technology. However, there has been an increase in VC investors’ traction for agriculture industry in recent times.”
The growth in deal volume is a testimony to this trend and is also of more significance as most of the other sectors suffered significant setbacks during the year. Although VC value declined by 5.5% from $7.4 billion in 2021 to $7 billion in 2022, the decline is much lessery, given the prevailing volatile market impact on other sectors.
An analysis of GlobalData’s Financial Deals Database reveals that the trend across different countries is different. For instance, the US registered 17.5% and 16.3% year-on-year (YoY) decline in VC funding deals volume and value, respectively. In contrast, India witnessed 79.5% and 49.9% YoY growth in VC funding deals volume and value, respectively.
Bose concludes: “Although the US experienced a decline in its share, it remained the leading country in terms of the number of VC deals announced globally in 2022, with China, India, the UK, and Canada following behind.”