Legacy Finance Eyes Agtech, with Wells Fargo

Legacy Finance Eyes Agtech, with Wells Fargo

While early-stage agtech tends to play in the venture world, it pays to check in with how folks sitting in banking think about their role as partners to startups. Traditional lenders can draw on the best part of a century of connection to agriculture, and potentially offer significant options for financing the growth of later-stage companies.

This week we heard from Romie Basra, Senior VP, National Sustainable Tech Practice Leader, and Karol Aure-Flynn, Food and Agribusiness Industries Advisor at Wells Fargo. As investors and lenders in traditional agriculture, as well as to other tech movements that have boomed (and busted) in recent memory, Romie and Karol joined to speak about:

  • Cleantech vs. agtech. How investors in the previous waves of cleantech think about the challenges facing the new generation of startups in ag
  • Financing options for startups. What role a legacy provider of finance like Wells Fargo wants to play for growing agtech companies
  • Scaling in indoor ag. How a bank thinks about the barriers to scale for companies in a space like indoor agriculture
  • Value props to institutional lenders. Why the “unsexy” elements of startup scale matter most to institutional lenders

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Episoder(203)

Killing Weeds Without Poison with Liam Hescock at Azaneo

Killing Weeds Without Poison with Liam Hescock at Azaneo

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2025 in AgTech… So what? with Shane Thomas

2025 in AgTech… So what? with Shane Thomas

As the new year gets underway, we’ve been thinking about the likely ups and downs ahead for the agtech world. We’ve been searching for insights in the recent announcement that FMC’s corporate venture ...

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How Business Model Innovation Changed AgTech in 2024

How Business Model Innovation Changed AgTech in 2024

There’s nothing like the end of another year to have us reflecting on the recent successes in the world of agtech, and the many challenges still left to overcome. One thing that has continued to stand...

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Shortening the Long Game in Livestock Breeding with Gerard Davis from Nbryo

Shortening the Long Game in Livestock Breeding with Gerard Davis from Nbryo

The history of agriculture is a history of selective breeding. Whether it’s plants or animals, humans have been choosing desirable traits and making sure those traits make it to the next generation fo...

27 Nov 202438min

Rethinking Who Pays in Irrigation AgTech with Jairo Trad

Rethinking Who Pays in Irrigation AgTech with Jairo Trad

Despite its importance to both agricultural and environmental outcomes, irrigation has not been a terribly successful subsection of agtech. We have our theories about why that is (we wrote a whole rep...

13 Nov 202437min

The Two Faces of Global ESG in Ag with Catherine Marriott

The Two Faces of Global ESG in Ag with Catherine Marriott

Depending on where you sit, the supremacy of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) action seems inevitable. Corporates are talking about. Investors are talking about it. Governments, regulators,...

30 Okt 202433min

Fractal Ag Pitch Breakdown with Ben Gordon and Shane Thomas

Fractal Ag Pitch Breakdown with Ben Gordon and Shane Thomas

Farmland has long been a popular asset among investors for its steady appreciation and resistance to economic downturns. At the same time, farmland is also a challenging asset at times, especially for...

16 Okt 202441min

Investing in Regenerative Agriculture Supply Chains with Calla Rose Ostrander

Investing in Regenerative Agriculture Supply Chains with Calla Rose Ostrander

When it comes to leveraging capital to fund climate action in agriculture, few ideas get as much play as regenerative agriculture. The idea of production that can not only be sustained but that can ac...

2 Okt 202432min

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