US-based capital investor in the global food and agriculture sector Pontifax AgTech Management has closed its second fund at US$302 million. The Pontifax Global Food and Agriculture Technology Fund II, reached its extended hard cap of US$300 million and was oversubscribed, bringing the firm’s current total assets under management to US$465 million.

Pontifax AgTech invests in businesses with technologies that improve the productivity, sustainability and efficiency of food and agriculture supply chains. 

“We are focused on pursuing disruptive technologies that result in healthier food while providing attractive returns for our investors,” says Phil Erlanger, co-founder and managing partner of Pontifax AgTech.

One such “disruptive” is Provivi. Fund II completed an inaugural investment in the company with a biological crop protection technology enabling the production of low-cost pheromones. These have the potential to sustainably disrupt the mating patterns of invasive crop insects.

The capital investor notes that the food and agriculture sector is the world’s second-fastest growing industrial sector, which is worth US$13 trillion. 

Furthermore, it employs nearly 40 percent of the world’s population, which the United Nations estimates will be close to 10 billion people by 2050. 

“Food demand is expected to double in the next three decades, while production is constrained by diminishing supplies of land, water and labor, coupled with increasing regulation,” explains Erlanger.

“The pandemic has only highlighted issues of food security and makes improving agricultural productivity, nutrition, and supply chain efficiency of paramount importance for global health and sustainability,” he adds. 

A win/win
There are substantial financial gains to be made in the industry while securing nutritious food for an unprecedented strain on our production and supply systems. 

“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,” says Ben Belldegrun, co-founder and managing partner of Pontifax AgTech.

Fund II attracted commitments from institutional investors, comprising domestic and international financial institutions, state pension funds, university endowments, foundations, investment firms, large-scale growers and family offices.  

“Our growth capital strategy offers investors a compelling risk/return investment profile while benefiting food security, climate change, grower well-being and consumer health,” adds Belldegrun.

Pontifax AgTech has invested in eleven industry-leading companies since the firm’s initial fund closed at US$105 million in October 2017. Fund I has monetized investments through the sale of Blue River Technology, a “next-generation” robotics and automation technology for crop cultivation to John Deere. 

It has also invested in the successful initial public offering of Precision Biosciences, a disruptive gene-editing technology with application to both human therapeutics and sustainable food traits.