AgTech Digest: Weekly Agriculture Technology News & Deals

A decarbonization fund just bought the business of baling corn stover — and crop residue stopped being a by-product.
Boston-based Ara Partners acquired a majority interest in Pacific Ag, founded in 1998 in the Columbia River Basin and billed as North America's largest crop residue supply and logistics company, for an undisclosed price. Pacific Ag harvests, stores and delivers corn stover and wheat straw to dairies, animal protein producers and mushroom growers across more than 30 states — a thin, local market that now sits inside a waste-to-value investment thesis.
Also this week: CarbonFarm closed an oversubscribed $7.8 million Series A led by Colam Impact, with Proparco, Suma Capital, elea, Working Capital Fund, Albo and Bpifrance joining returning backers Serena and Techmind; Terminus Capital Partners took a majority growth stake in farm labor and compliance platform PickTrace; Switch Bioworks signed Bayer Crop Science on engineered nitrogen-fixing microbes already in USDA- and EPA-authorized U.S. field trials; Greeneye Technology opened North American headquarters in Salina, Kansas after spraying 500,000+ acres in 2026 with average non-residual herbicide savings of 81%; TTA-ISO bought the Demtec brand, IP and inventory out of bankruptcy; Koppert launched the Bacillus velezensis fungicide Macan in Brazil, registered for 13 disease targets; CLAAS opened a 44,800-square-foot R&D center in Omaha, Nebraska inside a $100 million North American plan; Signify reported Finnish cucumber growers saving roughly €5,000 per hectare by cutting far-red light; and the John Deere Foundation committed $18.5 million to link farmers with food banks.
The paid edition, Grain Elevator, tracks cereals and grains through 2 October 2026: records up from 53 to 127, the country base from 14 to 27, nine priced rounds averaging $9.2 million against three averaging $51.2 million a year earlier, and four dated signals to watch.

In this episode:

(00:00) Cold Open

(00:34) The Impact Scorecard

(02:46) Corporate and Financial Shifts

(05:10) Innovation and Public Strategy

(07:48) Market Signals and Operations

(08:42) Close

Connect with Us!

Be sure to subscribe to our other shows:

Vertical Farming Podcast: https://vertical-farming-podcast.captivate.fm/listen

Greenhouse Success Stories: https://greenhouse-success-stories.captivate.fm/listen

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Mentioned in this episode:
2025 Precision Ag Report by iGrowNews
2025 Precision Ag Report
2025 Precision Ag Report by iGrowNews
2025 Precision Ag Report

Farm waste just became a bankable asset class — and a robotic bee startup got funded by the orchards that will use it.
Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners made the first investment from its Advanced Bioenergy Fund II, backing Via Verde's 20-project biomethane pipeline across Lombardy, Abruzzo and Campania in Italy, with each plant designed to process 60,000 to 100,000 tonnes of agricultural waste annually. Alongside it, two crop-input groups took full control of businesses: BRANDT bought all shares of Mexico's Agrícola Innovación, now “Altiara, A Brandt Company,” based in Pachuca; and BioFirst Group bought the remaining 14.71% of Brazil's Biotrop from Aqua Capital and Zempar, completing ahead of schedule a 2023 deal valued at BRL 2.8 billion (EUR 532 million).
Also this week: BloomX raised a $13 million Series A led by Elah Fund, with Rothschild, OurCrowd, Sadot and kibbutzim Magal, Horashim and Eyal backing its YAHAV2400 pollination platform; Darling Ingredients closed the sale of its CTH sausage casings business to Germany's SARIA Group to pay down debt; Antobot unveiled the U502 UV-C strawberry robot at Fruit Attraction in Madrid with commercial launch in 2027; Pairwise licensed its Fulcrum CRISPR platform to Belgium's Rainbow Crops ahead of the EU's 2028 genomic techniques route; Harvest Singularity broke ground on a $69 million greenhouse in Newberry, Florida, backed by a $5.6 million Florida Job Growth Grant; Napa wineries including Opus One and Dominus Estate pledged $2.5 million to red blotch virus research; Soilytix released its LOAM genomic AI models; iBOI, Acceleronix and Quectel launched an eSIM GPS cattle ear tag in Brazil enabling livestock credit; and the Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer fell 12 points to 123, with a record 52% of producers naming input costs as their top concern.
This week's paid edition, Low Country, analyses 114 Dutch agriculture and agtech records from 1 January to 26 September 2026 against 104 a year earlier: recorded capital rose from $48.6 million to $170.3 million, though FrieslandCampina's whey protein program accounts for 60.8% of it. Subscribe to the premium edition for the full Trends Analysis and what to watch through 2027.

In this episode:

(00:00) Cold Open

(00:35) The Impact Scorecard

(02:29) Corporate and Financial Shifts

(05:03) Innovation and Public Strategy

(07:34) Market Signals and Operations

(08:43) Close

Connect with Us!

Be sure to subscribe to our other shows:

Vertical Farming Podcast: https://vertical-farming-podcast.captivate.fm/listen

Greenhouse Success Stories: https://greenhouse-success-stories.captivate.fm/listen

Subscribe to our Newsletters:

https://network.igrownews.com/

Connect with us:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/igrow-news/

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Discover the best podcast services in the world at The Podosphere: https://www.thepodosphere.com/

Mentioned in this episode:
2025 Precision Ag Report by iGrowNews
2025 Precision Ag Report
2025 Precision Ag Report by iGrowNews
2025 Precision Ag Report

A $19 billion seed pipeline just walked out of Corteva and started trading on its own.
Corteva completed the spin-off of its seed and genetics business on October 1, and it now trades on the NYSE as Vylor, led by CEO Chuck Magro from Johnston, Iowa. The company values its corn, soybean and wheat pipeline at $19 billion, plans 12 platform launches over the next decade — including the Xpedite hybrid wheat system and the Vylor One licensing arm — and targets $11.2–11.9 billion in revenue by 2029.
Also this week: Hormel Foods agreed to buy Wisconsin chicken processor Brakebush for about $1.055 billion against roughly $1.2 billion in trailing net sales, adding five plants and two R&D labs; Tessenderlo Group paid about $403 million for roughly 20% of FMC Corporation at $13.30 a share, with a board nominee, a standstill and a three-year lock-up; AMVAC picked up US registrations for Syngenta's Caparol, Evik, Prime+ and Agri-Flex, worth more than $7 million in annual net sales; Bi-PA sold EMEA rights to its TEMAP biofungicide to Nichino Europe; Origin Agritech sold its 70.5% stake in Xinjiang Originbo Seed to Hunan Xindaxin for RMB 108 million, raising about $15.0 million; Edible Garden moved to buy its 6.2-acre Webster City, Iowa site for a 100 million-unit beverage line; ADAMA launched Actavan and Rexaro; DeLaval brought DeLaval Plus to the US; BiomEdit won USDA conditional licensure for CPerf LLV; and Corteva settled its 2023 Delaware suit against Inari.
This week's paid edition, Under Glass, breaks down greenhouse-sector activity in 2026 versus 2025 from the iGrowNews database: $249.7 million across 12 deals, ownership changes doubling to ten, 44 partnerships tracked, and the activity base widening from 16 countries to 23.

In this episode:

(00:00) Cold Open

(00:32) The Impact Scorecard

(02:30) Corporate and Financial Shifts

(05:02) Innovation and Public Strategy

(07:36) Market Signals and Operations

(08:52) Close

Connect with Us!

Be sure to subscribe to our other shows:

Vertical Farming Podcast: https://vertical-farming-podcast.captivate.fm/listen

Greenhouse Success Stories: https://greenhouse-success-stories.captivate.fm/listen

Subscribe to our Newsletters:

https://network.igrownews.com/

Connect with us:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/igrow-news/

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Mentioned in this episode:
2025 Precision Ag Report by iGrowNews
2025 Precision Ag Report
2025 Precision Ag Report by iGrowNews
2025 Precision Ag Report

Three companies sold divisions, two merged into one, and the only capital moving at scale was debt — except for the reactor developer that walked onto Nasdaq at a $2.4 billion pre-money valuation.
newcleo, the lead-cooled fast reactor and MOX fuel developer, closed its SPAC combination with NewHold Investment Corp III, raising $247 million gross and pushing total funding past $1 billion. It landed in a week defined by subtraction: Titan International agreed to sell its ITM (Italtractor ITM) undercarriage business to Italy's USCO S.p.A. for roughly $285 million in total cash value — a $207 million initial price, up to $6 million of earnout tied to 2026 performance, about $23 million of net asset adjustments and $49 million in dividends — closing early January 2027.
Also this week: Standlee and Anderson Hay combined to form Standlee-Anderson in Kimberly, Idaho, terms undisclosed; Vanguard Renewables bought Generate Upcycle's five North American sites to create a 19-site food waste-to-RNG platform, adding roughly 565,000 tons of annual processing, with Pinta Energy taking the seven UK facilities; Anyang Indorama Gases lined up RMB 2.4 billion (about $358 million) from an OCBC-led consortium with Bank of China and China CITIC Bank to roughly double urea output to 2 million tonnes a year by 2029; Form Energy closed a $270 million Barclays-structured facility expandable to $1 billion; Rainmaker raised a $100 million Series B from NOA VC, Upfront Ventures, DCVC and Lowercarbon Capital; ADM moved to monetize over 800,000 tons of annual engineered CO2 removal via Puro.earth and Tallgrass; Georgia Power's Nuclear Uprate tariff deal with Google adds about 96 MW at Plants Hatch and Vogtle and is projected to return roughly $900 million to customers; and Kernel added 40,000 tons of modular grain storage as strikes cut Ukraine's export corridors to about 1.4 million tons a month.
The premium edition, Under Glass, takes the greenhouse sector apart year to date: 142 records through 22 September against 89 in 2025, deal count up by half with average deal size down 40%, equity and convertible rounds up 42% to $65.6 million, ownership changes doubled to 10, and activity spread from 16 countries to 23.

In this episode:

(00:00) Cold Open

(01:04) The Impact Scorecard

(02:53) Corporate and Financial Shifts

(06:10) Innovation and Public Strategy

(09:13) Market Signals and Operations

(10:35) Close

Connect with Us!

Be sure to subscribe to our other shows:

Vertical Farming Podcast: https://vertical-farming-podcast.captivate.fm/listen

Greenhouse Success Stories: https://greenhouse-success-stories.captivate.fm/listen

Subscribe to our Newsletters:

https://network.igrownews.com/

Connect with us:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/igrow-news/

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Podcast Production Support provided by https://fullcast.co

Discover the best podcast services in the world at The Podosphere: https://www.thepodosphere.com/

Mentioned in this episode:
2025 Precision Ag Report by iGrowNews
2025 Precision Ag Report
2025 Precision Ag Report by iGrowNews
2025 Precision Ag Report

In one week, two of the largest names in crop inputs decided they are worth more in pieces.
Corteva's board approved distributing its seed operating segment into a new independent, publicly traded company called Vylor, ahead of an October 1 separation — with the seed platform already forecasting $500 million in North America wheat revenue by 2035, $1 billion by 2040, and roughly $500 million in incremental soybean revenue. Days later, BASF mandated Citi, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan to prepare a Frankfurt listing for its Agricultural Solutions unit, which posted €9.6 billion (about $11.1 billion) in 2025 sales and is roughly 80% carved into standalone legal entities, with a Capital Markets Day set for November 24, 2026 and IPO readiness targeted by mid-2027.
Also this week: IDEXX Laboratories agreed to buy CoVetAI for AI-native veterinary workflow tools; BFG Supply Co., a 54-year-old horticulture distributor, set an auction date for substantially all assets after its August Chapter 11 filing with 16 affiliates; Robigo closed a Series A led by Leaps by Bayer with Illumina Ventures, SVG Thrive, Congruent Ventures and Endeavor8; Nature's Miracle Holding agreed to divest its Visiontech grow-light subsidiary; Mazama Energy raised $135 million and Branch Energy $33 million; Crane Company bought Trillium Pumps US for $240 million and ZenaTech closed its 29th roll-up; Pivot Bio welcomed finalized 45Z Clean Fuel Production Tax Credit guidance for regeneratively grown corn; The More Life Company reported up to 32.5% potato yield gains in Brazil from licensed Agrarius technology; New Holland launched a retrofit GPS kit for tractors up to 35 years old; and Alveo Technologies partnered with Alliance Global on on-farm avian-influenza testing across Africa, Central Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean.
This week's paid edition, Cash Crop, covers Holtec Nuclear's IPO push at a roughly $10.2 billion valuation, Franklin Electric's up-to-$400 million purchase of Cat Pumps, Mitti Labs' Google-backed rice-methane carbon deal, and Agreena's record 4.45 million-tonne soil-carbon agreement across Kazakhstan.

In this episode:

(00:00) Cold Open

(00:59) The Impact Scorecard

(02:42) Corporate and Financial Shifts

(05:33) Innovation and Public Strategy

(08:09) Market Signals and Operations

(09:09) Close

Connect with Us!

Be sure to subscribe to our other shows:

Vertical Farming Podcast: https://vertical-farming-podcast.captivate.fm/listen

Greenhouse Success Stories: https://greenhouse-success-stories.captivate.fm/listen

Subscribe to our Newsletters:

https://network.igrownews.com/

Connect with us:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/igrow-news/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/igrownews

🎙️🎙️🎙️

Podcast Production Support provided by https://fullcast.co

Discover the best podcast services in the world at The Podosphere: https://www.thepodosphere.com/

Mentioned in this episode:
2025 Precision Ag Report by iGrowNews
2025 Precision Ag Report
2025 Precision Ag Report by iGrowNews
2025 Precision Ag Report