Ireland has the opportunity to become a European Agtech hub. Now there’s €40m to start backing the plan.
A US Agtech venture capital firm, offering investments in innovative early-stage Agtech companies, is to open its first European office in Ireland. The fund is led by Wexford native, Kieran Furlong.
Finistere Ventures, a Californian VC firm, has partnered with Ireland’s sovereign development fund (ISIF) to launch the €20m Ireland Agtech Fund (IAF).
The Irish Strategic Investment Fund has also allocated a further €20m in Finistere’s second global agtech fund for global agri investment. Kieran Furlong spoke to ThinkBusiness about this exciting development.
What is your background?
I grew up in Co. Wexford – not in a farming household, but in a “country” family. I spent plenty of time on my uncle’s farm and had the usual Wexford childhood memories of picking berries and harvesting potatoes.
After studying chemical engineering at UCD, I joined a multi-national chemical company and set off for Argentina right after graduating.
I spent about a decade in the chemical industry, although most of that time was dealing with agri-business and large companies like Cargill, and ADM. I was very interested in bio-based and sustainable materials and left the corporate world for post-graduate study and then joined a startup making biofuel from algae. After that, I worked on the first commercial 100% bio-based Coke bottle with a startup in Wisconsin.
Finistere reached out to me about two years ago to take a look at the application of industrial biotechnology in agriculture, and when the opportunity arose to get involved with Agtech in Ireland, I was very happy to be able to take it.
“Ireland combines an innovative domestic agri-food industry with the European home of Silicon Valley’s tech giants.”
Why Ireland? What has Ireland got to offer the world?
We think Ireland has great potential to be a
