San Diego venture firm Radicle Growth, John Deere and Land O'Lakes, working through the AgRogue platform, have opened a global search for startups building the renewable economy, with up to $10 million in equity for the winners. The Radicle Renewables Challenge covers renewable chemicals, feedstocks, fuels, materials, processing and infrastructure technology. Applications close on 20 November 2026.
Winners will receive a priced funding round or a convertible note, said Neal Gutterson, chief technology officer and partner at Radicle Growth. Land O'Lakes' chief strategy officer Jason Trusley said the renewables economy was a significant chance to create new demand and value for farmers, but only with innovation that works across the value chain and through trusted retail channels.
The challenge follows last year's Radicle Inputs Innovation Challenge, the firm's first with Land O'Lakes, which has become an open-ended call that startups still answer. Gutterson said partners such as John Deere and the big retail cooperatives show the firm what their customers, and ultimately farmers, need, and that each challenge doubles as a map of innovation in the field. Radicle invested in Swarm Engineering's Series A in June through the AgRogue fund and plans at least one more investment by year-end.
Gutterson was frank about the market. Agtech venture investing is still difficult, the environment for exits is "not very good", and the sector is waiting to see what happens at Bayer, Corteva, FMC and Syngenta. He had expected early 2025 to be the bottom and was wrong, he said, and does not think the full bottom has been seen yet.
He said innovation continues regardless, and his firm is watching physical AI, biofertilizers and crop protection. Crop protection, he said, needs new molecules, more precise delivery and diagnostics working together, rather than the many single-point solutions of recent years.
The report is by Ryan Daily for AgNavigator.
Photo: USDA (ethanol plant with corn, Atlantic, Iowa) / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
Source: AgNavigator
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