🧑‍💻 Sowing innovation

AGTECH

Despite funding gap, Brazil's agtech sector grows

Brazil’s agricultural technology sector has matured significantly in recent years, though access to venture capital remains limited — despite the country’s heavy reliance on agribusiness to drive economic growth.

Put together by early-stage investment fund SP Ventures, consultancy Homo Ludens and the state-run agricultural research agency Embrapa, the latest Radar Agtech report identified 1,972 active agtech startups in Brazil in 2024 — spanning sectors such as product development, credit, production management, food processing and more. While the figure is virtually unchanged from the previous year, it marks a 25% increase since 2020.

“The growth in absolute numbers may be slower, but the companies are becoming more established,” said Luiz Ojima Sakuda, one of the study coordinators. “There’s still a lot of room for expansion.”

Indeed, the share of rural households with internet access jumped from 22% in 2015 to 74% in 2024, largely due to a digitalization boom during the pandemic. “Infrastructure was a missing piece,” Sakuda told The Brazilian Report. “Now there’s potential for wide-scale adoption.”

Investment still trails other sectors

According to a separate report by consultancy Liga Ventures, investments in Brazilian agtech startups surpassed BRL 1 billion (almost USD 177 million) in 2024 — making it the second-best year on record. However, the sector still receives a fraction of the capital flowing into fintech and energy startups in Latin America.

Much of the money went to a handful of mature firms: credit provider Agrolend, marketplace Cayenna and robotics company Solinfitec each raised BRL 300 million in late-stage rounds.

New capital is emerging from both sector-specific funds — like those pioneered by SP Ventures — and growing interest from generalist and corporate venture funds. The Radar Agtech report identified 40 generalist funds with investments in agtech and foodtech companies.

Still, attracting more international capital and getting industry players to invest directly remain key challenges.

A role for public research

Early-stage ventures continue to rely heavily on public research support. “Agricultural innovation takes longer to develop than fintech, for example — it’s subject to harvest cycles and climate,” said Aurélio Martins Favarin, another report coordinator.

State-funded research agencies — similar to the US National Science Foundation — have played a critical role in backing R&D. São Paulo, the country’s richest and most research-intensive state, still accounts for 43% of all agtech firms, down from 52% in 2019. 

It remains the national hub, home to research farms, universities and innovation centers. Recently, a plan from São Paulo Governor Tarcísio de Freitas to sell part of the state’s research farms to private companies was met with protests from academia.

Other major agricultural states, like Mato Grosso, are home to only a fraction of agtech startups. The report identified more than 450 support environments nationwide, including incubators, accelerators and tech parks.

One standout is the Agro Innovation Corridor, launched in 2019 to connect dozens of research institutions and innovation hubs within a 400-kilometer radius in São Paulo state, encompassing major cities such as Campinas and Ribeirão Preto.

Another example is Agro Valley in Londrina, in the southern state of Paraná. Recognized by the Agriculture Ministry in 2019 as the country’s first initiative of its kind, it combines an accelerator and innovation hub to support startups at various stages of development.

Where the growth is

Startups focused on activities inside farm gates now account for 41.5% of the total, up from 35% in 2019, reflecting rising demand for data analytics and automation. Meanwhile, companies targeting logistics and trade (the so-called “post-farm” segment) dropped to 40%, likely due to consolidation.

But investors see the strongest potential in “pre-farm” solutions, such as credit, insurance and biological inputs. These account for about one in five startups today and are growing fast, driven by demand for financing and advances in biotech, where Brazil is already a global force.

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