Amsterdam’s Anterra Capital marks $100M first close for Fund III to back next-gen food and agritech innovation

Founded in 2013, with offices in Amsterdam and Boston, the firm manages more than $500 million across three funds. Anterra invests in and helps build companies that use life sciences and software technologies to improve the food and agriculture sectors.

The first close of Fund III is an important milestone for the firm.

Anterra was founded on the belief that technologies that transformed industries such as healthcare, logistics, and financial services—especially advances in life sciences and software—would eventually reshape food and agriculture as well.

“The vote of confidence from our investor base is what gives this close its weight. “The combination of leading global asset managers, the institutions that know our sector backwards and the operators who farm millions of acres all backing the same thesis is an unrivalled force supporting the Anterra portfolio,” said Adam Anders, Partner at Anterra Capital.

“The firm has now successfully navigated two capital cycles in food and agriculture,” said Maarten Goossens, Partner at Anterra Capital. Each one rewarded the same discipline: backing companies that deliver real returns for their customers and to their investors. What's different this time is that the real-world industries we operate in — large, complex and historically resistant to change — are now ready to be rewired, and the tools to do it have arrived.”

Food and agriculture is the world's largest industry, worth about $10 trillion and employing around 1.3 billion people—nearly 40% of the global workforce.

The sector is facing several major challenges, including fluctuating profit margins, food security concerns, climate and water shortages, stricter regulations, and growing pressure to improve health outcomes. These challenges are making traditional ways of operating less effective.

Investment in food and agriculture technology reached a record high of nearly $52 billion in 2021 but later dropped to around $16 billion, returning to levels seen in 2016.

Much of the earlier funding from generalist investors went into high-risk, capital-intensive businesses such as vertical farming, plant-based meat alternatives, and ultra-fast grocery delivery services, many of which struggled to scale successfully.

Anterra Capital says it followed a different strategy by investing in science-based companies with strong business fundamentals and realistic paths to growth through existing industry networks.

According to the firm, the shift away from hype-driven investments and back toward sustainable business models creates a strong opportunity for specialist investors. Anterra believes that lower startup valuations and advances in AI are making it easier and cheaper to build innovative companies in both software and life sciences, creating the right conditions to scale its investment strategy.
 

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