2025 AgriFoodTech Investment Trends: A Shift Beyond Traditional Boundaries

[Disclosure: AgFunderNews’ parent company is AgFunder.]

As financial resources remain tight, investors in 2025 have shifted their focus, increasingly backing startups that venture beyond the realms of agtech and foodtech. Areas such as energy, fintech, and deep tech are now taking center stage.

The AgFunder team will soon unveil full investment statistics for 2025 through its annual Global AgriFoodTech Investment report, which will encompass the total funding accrued throughout the year.

In the interim, preliminary data sheds light on current funding trends and offers insights into what to anticipate in 2026.

Leading the Charge: Bioenergy & Biomaterials

Funding in 2025: $1.3 billion

Deal Count: 72

Significance: The urgent need to address grid reliability and increasing data demands have propelled eight of the top ten startups in this category to focus on renewable energy solutions. Energy is crucial to the agri-food sector, often acting as a bottleneck for innovation. Moreover, rising concerns about microplastics and the health of our planet are driving the search for sustainable alternatives in packaging and textiles.

Rising Stars: Ag Marketplaces

Funding in 2025: $772 million

Deal Count: 65

Significance: A pair of Indian companies captured more than half of the funding in this category, highlighting India’s longstanding dominance in ag marketplaces. With hundreds of millions of smallholder farmers in India in need of better market access and credit, this sector remains concentrated in emerging markets.

Decline in: Innovative Food

Funding in 2025: $590 million

Deal Count: 112

Significance: With companies like Beyond Meat struggling and high-profile players such as Believer Meats shutting down, investor confidence in the innovative food sector has plummeted. Funding saw a nearly 60% drop year-on-year, plummeting more than 80% from the peak of $3.3 billion in 2022.

Unexpected Trends: Farm Robotics, Mechanization & Equipment

Funding in 2025: $590 million

Deal Count: 67

Significance: Despite a flurry of fundraising efforts in 2025, farm robotics ranked low among upstream categories. Labor shortages continue to challenge growers, creating significant opportunities for innovative startups aiming to address this critical issue.