Pontifax AgTech Management, a California based firm which invests in technology used in the food and agriculture sector, closed its second fund, Pontifax Global Food and Agriculture Technology Fund II, with commitments totaling $302m. The predecessor fund closed in 2017 with $105 million.
Pontifax AgTech invests globally in growing businesses that improve agricultural productivity, nutrition, health, sustainability and supply chain efficiency.
“We are grateful for a strong, positive response to Fund II from both existing and new institutional investors. Sophisticated investors are increasingly discovering the agriculture and food technology sector as a means to diversify their alternatives strategies and as an opportunity to make a significant impact on sustainability. Our growth capital strategy offers investors a compelling risk/return investment profile while benefiting food security, climate change, grower well-being and consumer health.”
Ben Belldegrun, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Pontifax AgTech
Pontifax AgTech portfolio is composed of revenue generating companies that push the edge of what’s possible in the agriculture technology sector. The current portfolio comprise of:
- AgBiome: Biologicals discovery and development platform targeting crop protection.
- Anuvia: Slow released fertilizer from municipal bio-feed stock.
- The Bouqs Co.: E-commerce flower delivery platform, with farm direct supply chain model.
- Caribou Biosciences: Best in class CRISPR gene editing technology platform.
- Concentric: High performance biological products that naturally increase crop yields and replenish soils.
- Conservis: ERP software platform for farming operations.
- FoodLogiQ: Software as a service solution to promote food safety through traceability.
- Provivi: Pheromone pest control technology in broad acreage crops.
- Tropic Biosciences: Utilize gene editing in developing non-GMO commercial varieties of tropical crops.
Pontifax AgTech Fund I has monetized two investments through the sale of Blue River Technology, a next generation robotics and automation technology for crop cultivation, to John Deere and the successful IPO of Precision Biosciences, a disruptive gene editing technology with application to both human therapeutics and sustainable food traits.
About Pontifax
Pontifax Group is Israel’s top life sciences investment firm. Created by TEVA founder Eli Hurvitz in 2004, Pontifax Group has invested over $350M across 4 different funds into over 45 portfolio companies. Pontifax AgTech is the first AgTech and fifth life sciences fund of Pontifax Group.
Pontifax AgTech leverages the skills and experience of Pontifax Group’s investment team, global ecosystem of strategic relationships with leading growers, corporations and technical experts, and its life sciences investment expertise to make disciplined investments in the AgTech Sector.
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