Investment in AgTech: How does Australia compare with the US and global trends?

A narrative in numbers

9 October 2018

The following infographics form part of the United States Studies Centre report, Australian AgTech: Opportunities and challenges as seen from a US venture capital perspective.

How the Australian market compares to the global market

How the Australian market compares to the US market

Endnotes

“2017 AgTech Investment Review”, Pitchbook, 25 September 2017, pp. 17-18.
Investment data is from analysis by the USSC. The aggregate investment value provided for Australia is the combined value of investment contributed to AgTech by accelerators, venture capital, corporate investors, angel investors and family offices in 2016. This selection of data provides for the most accurate comparison with global investment data by AgFunder. The value presented has been converted to USD on 29 June 2018, using Google. This provides an estimate value in USD for the purpose of a broad comparison of scale between the AgTech investment market in Australia and selected international AgTech investment markets.
Best estimate provided by viewing graphs in “2017 AgTech Investment Review”, Finistere Ventures & Pitchbook, 25 Sept 2017, p. 5.
Global data was taken from AgFunder. As AgFunder have categorised companies using a different technology taxonomy, the USSC amalgamated all technology segments in our own taxonomy to fit the technology categorisation structure of AgFunder. Each company in Australia was recategorised under AgFunder’s taxonomy. Some categories in AgFunder’s taxonomy, which are not consistent with the USSC definition of AgTech, were excluded from analysis. The USSC created an overall figure for the global market using selected categories, and calculated percentages from the aggregate total of this selection.
Analysis by the USSC. Aggregate value of money recorded in time period indicated converted to USD on the 2 July 2018 using Google. This provides an estimate value in USD for the purpose of a broad comparison of scale between the AgTech investment market in Australia and selected VC markets in the United States.
Analysis by the USSC. Analysis of VC ‘like’ deals includes investments involving corporate investors, angel investors and syndicates containing diverse investor types. These investments generally share many of the characteristics of deals led by VC firms. Given the unique nature of the Australian AgTech investment market, whereby series A and later stage deals often occur as syndicated investments involving investors from diverse investor categories, we believe that this analysis provides a figure that is more indicative of the Australian AgTech investment market and is better than using only VC investment figures in Australia for certain comparisons with US and global VC markets. US VC data: Olsen, D. and Hammond, Reilly. “News & Analysis: VC investment in US agtech keeps growing [datagraphic]”, Pitchbook, 8 August 2017, <https://pitchbook.com/news/articles/vc-investment-in-us-agtech-keeps-growing-datagraphic>
Analysis by the USSC. Analysis of VC ‘like’ deals includes investments involving corporate investors, angel investors and syndicates containing diverse investor types. These investments generally share many of the characteristics of deals led by VC firms. Given the unique nature of the Australian AgTech investment market, whereby series A and later stage deals often occur as syndicated investments involving investors from diverse investor categories, we believe that this analysis provides a figure that is more indicative of the Australian AgTech investment market and is better than using only VC investment figures in Australia for certain comparisons with US and global VC markets.