3rd Quarter Review - FAST Verticals

“Science without conscience is but the ruin of the soul"

The third quarter was dominated by commodity and energy prices on the rise, severe weather occurrences, the latest IPCC report and labour shortages from farm to (restaurant) fork.

So, everything points towards the importance of true sustainable technology solutions, for instance; algae biofuels, indoor farming, waste up-cycling or robots.

Specifically, higher fossil fuel prices means that cost of virgin plastics is also going-up and therefore alternative plastics become (even) more competitive.

The summer was characterized by either too much or too little rain, big swings are bad for agriculture hence it is critical to monitor moist adequately (CropX, a company we support, is at the forefront on this topic)????

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The numbers below are derived from a database(1) that we have built to support our day-to-day business:

1. Sell-side: alongside our capital raising activities, we are also active in secondaries and co-investments. Year to date, we have been active across the board (series A to series D / pre-SPAC) in the agtech/foodtech space and in wastetech
2. B.???Buy-side: advising institutional investors as to relevant GPs and companies. Of the 200+ GPs dedicated to one or more of the FAST Verticals, we entertain an active dialogue with a majority of them. Apart from textiles, the number of GPs active in the space keeps on growing. We are always on the look-out for new GPs or companies in our verticals.

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In our database, we have tracked 9’611 rounds since January 2014 involving 5’386 companies and 6’150 unique investors.

• In 2021, 648 rounds took place, 821 investors participated
• 95 FAST GPs were involved in 223 rounds ytd. We know 1 in 3 of the companies fund raising.

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$100bio

We created Investment Circle in early 2018, focusing on the FAST verticals (food, ag, scrap, textile) specifically in the private markets. Since then, $100bio of capital raising has taken place. 2021 is already a record year with $31bio.

Rounds are becoming larger

It is a fact that round average sizes have increased as of late (see table below)

Private markets are the only place where investors can find “pure” sustainable technologies. Historically, FAST verticals have been disregarded by investors (agtech suffers from long cycles, textile value chain is highly fragmented, waste was exported) but the situation is changing due to technology allowing for measurability and traceability.

To achieve 2030 and 2050 GHG targets, major shifts are needed across the whole FAST value chain so private markets activity will remain at elevated levels.

Top 10 over the last quarter

Top 10 last quarter excluding Delievry and e-Commerce

Top 10 seed investors YTD

(1) Source Crunchbase, Agfunder

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