The pandemic drove venture capitalists to stake a record $22.3 billion in the food and agriculture industry in 2020, twice as much as the previous year, according to a new study.
The bulk of the investment, some 68%, went to e-commerce and goods/services related to it, such as meal kit companies, according to the study by Finistere Ventures. Meal kits alone raised $6.2 billion.
Arama Kukutai, a partner at Finistere, told CNBC that he thinks interest in food delivery and meal kits will outlast the pandemic, but that he expects to see some mergers and acquisitions in the sector in the immediate future.
Another sector that drew investor interest was innovative agriculture, especially indoor farming. Agricultural technology companies raised about $5 billion according to the Finistere study, and of the top 10 deals in ag tech, four were for indoor farming.
Kukutai also said he expects investment in plant-based alternative proteins to continue. Alternative-protein startups raised $3.1 billion last year, compared with $858.7 million the year before.
