January 30, 2023

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

SVG Ventures|THRIVE announced the launch of its third fund – the SVG Ventures Pioneer Fund (Pioneer Fund) with Farm Credit Canada (FCC) as the lead investor. 

With a plan for capital commitments totaling CAD$75 million (US$56 million), the Pioneer Fund will be deployed to advance global agrifood startups developing innovative and sustainable agricultural technologies along the entire value chain, and in the process, earn competitive returns for its investors. 

As lead investor the fund is Farm Credit Canada (FCC), a federal Crown corporation with a loan portfolio exceeding CAD$44 billion (US$33 billion). FCC is also the leading agricultural lender in Canada, providing flexible and competitively priced financing and strategic venture capital needed by the country’s entrepreneurs to grow their businesses. 

“We are delighted to have FCC join us as lead investor in our Pioneer Fund,” said John Hartnett, founder and CEO, SVG Ventures|THRIVE. “FCC has been a long-time partner and key supporter of early-stage agrifood tech companies and we are delighted to expand our partnership with this investment.”

SVG Ventures stated that it will continue to act in accordance to its model of advancing and elevating startups in partnership with Alberta Innovates through its THRIVE Accelerator Programs and recently created THRIVE Academy pre-accelerator program funded by Alberta Innovates. 

“Alberta Innovates congratulates SVG Ventures|THRIVE and Farm Credit Canada coming together through the SVG Ventures Pioneer Fund,” said Laura Kilcrease, CEO, Alberta Innovates.

Creating wraparound services for agrifood innovation is critical to building a healthy and supportive startup ecosystem. When those companies succeed, Alberta succeeds.”

These programs will provide insights into the founders, technologies, and business models of the graduating companies, which will present robust investment opportunities to the Pioneer Fund. 

To-date, SVG Ventures has invested in more than 80 global agrifood tech companies including transformational enterprises such as Tortuga Agtech, Milkmoovement, Farmwise, Trace Genomics, and Burro, among others. As the third and most recent of SVG’s funds, Pioneer Fund will continue this work, making initial investments in Seed to Series A rounds. 

“FCC is pleased to be the lead investor in the SVG Ventures Pioneer Fund, which is a natural extension of our involvement in bringing SVG Thrive’s successful global accelerator and platform to Canada in 2020,” said Rebbecca Clarke, vice-president, FCC venture capital. 

“The Pioneer Fund is an exciting and important next step in bringing needed capital to this growing acceleration ecosystem for start-up and early-stage entrepreneurs and companies in Canada’s agriculture and food industry.”

SVG Ventures also announced the addition of the Argosy Foundation to the Pioneer Fund. Founded in 1997 by John Abele, co-founder of Boston Scientific, this Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based foundation is a private family foundation with a mission to support people and programs that make our society a better place to live. 

Across the entire span of its funds, SVG’s global partners also include the Alberta Government, Corteva, Driscoll’s, BASF, Kubota, Land O’Lakes, Taylor Farms, Bayer, SHELL, Intel, Nutrien, Yamaha Motor Ventures, and Wilbur-Ellis, among other leading government, agriculture, and technology corporations. 

~ Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor in chief with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, as well as HighQuest Group’s Unconventional Ag. She can be reached at lkiernan-stone@globalaginvesting.com.

*The content put forth by Global AgInvesting News and its parent company HighQuest Partners is intended to be used and must be used for informational purposes only. All information or other material herein is not to be construed as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. Global AgInvesting and HighQuest Partners are not a fiduciary in any manner, and the reader assumes the sole responsibility of evaluating the merits and risks associated with the use of any information or other content on this site.