Special Premium Report: Industry and investor guide to Wine/Viticulture-relevant AgTech technologies and companies

While the pandemic has rattled global financial markets, it will not last forever.

 

That’s why savvy investors and forward-looking winery and vineyard executives are seeking the new services, technologies and products that will increase operating profits and provide solid investments.

 

To that end, Wine Executive News has ranked 13 promising AgTech companies that may facilitate that search.

 

Beginning of a new series

In December, Wine Executive News and its sister publication, Wine Industry Insight, published a major article on venture funding in AgTech: “Breaking the doom loop: Wine desperately needs AgTech to get out of its slump.”

 

This article picks up where that article left off. In addition, we’re launching an ongoing series of articles to continue the thought and purpose behind that first article.

 

It’s important to realize that AgTech is just one half of a larger sector known as AgriFoodTech. That sector has been defined by SVG Ventures and others in the field as advanced, novel, emerging, and potentially game-changing technologies applied to agriculture and food.

 

To learn more about the differences between AgTech and FoodTech, see: What the heck is AgriFoodTech?

Wines and grapes: Coloring outside the lines

Wine and viticulture are so tightly coupled that many people see no separation between the two.

 

However, there are wineries that grow no grapes, and most independent vineyards make no wine other than the occasional custom-crush vintage. And, of course, there are “wineries” that make no wine and grow no grapes.

 

Clearly emerging technologies and companies for winemaking fit the FoodTech category. And their counterparts with roots in the soil are AgTech.

 

We will cover each as separate sectors and draw connections between the two when warranted.

 

Relevant investment & operational opportunities for the players in wine

This additional focus and coverage on emerging AgriFoodTech companies is needed because the premium subscribers to Wine Executive News:

 

• own
• and/or operate,
• and/or control,
• and/or finance,

 

the enterprises that grow and produce almost 98% of U.S. wine and wine grapes.

 

As a result, those premium subscribers are interested in the technologies in an operational sense, and in the financial “legs” of the companies as potential investments.

Vino & Vit applications mostly ignored by AgTech/FoodTech companies

Most VC-funded AgriFoodTech companies ignore wine and viticulture even though their technology is applicable to the industry.

 

As a result, Wine Executive News will use its accumulated tech, ag, and wine experience/ knowledge base to examine products and services all across the AgTech/FoodTech spectrum to look for appropriate technologies, services, products and investment opportunities relevant to the wine industry.

 

Emerging technologies from established companies: The finance and investment angle

Our AgriFoodTech coverage will have a strong emphasis on finance and investment in start-up and early-stage companies.

 

Established companies with startling new technologies will be covered if they are transparent investment opportunities suitable for our detailed investment coverage such as this previous example.

 

Ongoing Article Sourcing

The primary goals of this article and its company rankings are to locate and prioritize companies that:

 

• Have specifically addressed wine and/or viticulture as a target market, or
• Have not mentioned wine or viticulture but which offer technologies, products and services that are applicable to wine and/or viticulture.

 

To do that, we will rely on the top AgriFoodTech venture capital investors for much of our information. They will be supplemented by the invaluable brainpower of the industry and financial subscribers we have developed over the past 12 years of publishing.

 

This area is of special interest to Publisher and Executive Editor Lewis Perdue whose education and experience in science, agriculture, and high-technology startups have helped equip him to cover this new sector.

Sourcing for this article: SVG Ventures 2020 AgTech Report

Sourcing for this article comes primarily from the SVG Ventures Final Top 50 AgTech Companies, 2020 Report.  SVG is one of the top AgriFoodTech-focused VCs. Others include Finistere Ventures and AgFunder whom we will also include in our future reporting.

 

This article is based upon a close examination of every company listed in the SVG Ventures Final Top 50 AgTech Companies, 2020 Report.

 

Contents of what you will find ahead

• An introduction to the AgTech landscape
• Methodology for finding and ranking the companies
• Company Rankings
• Comments on Companies and a description page from the SVG report.

 

 

Methodology for ranking

The lowest bar for inclusion in this list is whether the company’s technology is (or might be) relevant to wine and viticulture. That basic measure was accomplished by reading the company descriptions.

 

Companies which exhibit an active intent to market to vineyards and wineries rank.

 

Information for this ranking has been determined by data available at each company’s web site. This has been made necessary because previous emails to some companies have gone unanswered.

 

We have attempted to visit every page on every web site. Those attempts were often thwarted by dead pages, browser crashes from poorly executed and overly complicated scripting, slow page loads, annoying animations, and other user-hostile site flaws.

 

Ease of use and clear navigation are indicative of management’s regard to customers as well as prospective customers and potential investors.

 

The quality, depth and completeness of information on a web site reflects management’s grasp of marketing as well as the value of transparency and thoroughness. Sites filled with non-specific verbiage and strings of trendy buzzwords indicate that the company may lack a clear idea of who and what they are all about and exactly who their best customers are.

 

Special consideration has been given to companies whose web sites contain credible and authoritative Third Party validation without conflicts of interest. This validation includes detailed customer case histories, product testing, links to peer-reviewed studies that confirm the that the product works safety as warranted

These are the AgTech companies that provide best value to wine and viticulture

Company profiles and ranking considerations for each company in the premium content below.

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