
Yield Lab, a portfolio company of venture firm Cultivation Capital, aims to raise $3.5 million to invest in agtech startups by 2017, Matt Plummer, operations manager for Cultivation, told Agri Investor.
Yield Lab is an agtech accelerator platform that supports emerging companies with up to $100,000 in funding and provides business development services. So far it has backed six companies, including Arvegenix, a pennycress oilseed producer that recently closed a Series A financing.
Yield Lab looks at “anything that will sustainably increase the world’s food supply” or make the supply chain more efficient, Plummer said.
He noted financing for Yield Lab has been open since its founding in September 2014; it raised $525,000 in October 2014 from undisclosed venture backers, according to VC funding database Crunchbase.
St Louis-based Cultivation invests in technology and life sciences start-ups. It manages four funds, including growth-, tech- and biotech/life sciences-focused vehicles. Its life sciences and biotech fund, a 2013 vintage that also invests in agtech, has raised $375,000 towards a $30 million target, according to PEI data. It was unclear at press time how much of the fund had been deployed.
Plummer declined to comment on fundraising, citing Securities and Exchange Commission regulations.
Cultivation’s portfolio include three other accelerators: SixThirty, which focuses on fintech start-ups; Prosper, a platform aimed at women entrepreneurs; and tech start-up accelerator Capital Innovators.