February 8, 2016

Avrio Capital announced the second closing of its third late stage ag and food tech venture fund, Avrio Ventures Limited Partnership III, and the establishment of Avrio Ventures Parallel Limited Partnership III, at a total corpus of $110 million, marking it as the firm’s largest fund to date.

Established in 2002, Calgary-based Avrio Partners is one of Canada’s longest-functioning venture firms, having committed in excess of C$200 million across fifty agriculture and food technology companies in its portfolio, including Brookside, Wolf Trax Inc., Hortau, and Farmers Edge Inc.

"The adoption of technology along the agricultural value chain is occurring at an unprecedented pace,” said Aki Georgacacos, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Avrio in a company statement. “Food security, wellness, sustainability and the digitization of the farm are just a few of the macro themes creating a new class of ag-tech companies that are redefining the ways in which we feed the world." 

This second closing follows the fund’s first closing in August 2014 which included the fund’s cornerstone investors, Farm Credit Canada and Export Development Canada. New investors to Fund III include HarbourVest Canada Growth Fund L.P., HarbourVest Canada Parallel Growth Fund L.P. and Fondaction, le Fonds de développement de la Confédération des syndicats nationaux pour la coopération et l'emploi, as well various family offices and  incumbent limited partners, BDC Capital and Alberta Enterprise Corporation.

Senia Rapisarda, principal with HarbourVest, one of Canada's leading venture fund of fund managers commented in a recent press release regarding the closing, "I am delighted that our Canadian Growth Fund identified this promising investment in a new investment vertical that is poised for significant growth. Avrio is the global leader in ag-tech investing, a sector that we believe represents compelling opportunity for outsized returns as companies pursue innovation that addresses the growing imbalance between a growing population base and the earth's natural life support mechanisms."