2017年11月7日

CapAgro是法国农业食品科技风险投资公司在2014年底,开始爆炸,使九投资12个月,八个在成立后的前三个月。去年10月,国际货币基金组织宣布第二近的CapAgro创新基金增加€6600万(7800万美元),将基金的总€124(合147美元)。CapAgro的投资范围广泛,涵盖创新食品、农业市场,新颖的农业系统,农业机器人,和中游技术。合伙人我们赶上新兴Monpert CapAgro自2015年以来,找出为什么CapAgro看着更多的机器人技术投资的国际论坛在农业机器人在图卢兹,法国11月29日和30日,他是一个演说家。CapAgro目前只投资于一个农业机器人技术公司——Naio技术。CapAgro评估更多的机器人公司或你Naio一次性投资?我们正在评估每一个机器人公司。我在接下来的日子里会遇到另一个团队。(蓝河的收购由约翰迪尔)的成功,我希望,我们不仅Capagro,而且每一个VC亚博将有一个机器人领域的独角兽。我们在那一刻农民准备投资。 They are looking for new technologies to manage their farms, which are bigger and bigger, with a labor shortage. There are good opportunities for robotics that can create the opportunity to have a unicorn – I hope so! What is your first consideration when evaluating a robotics startup? The first thing we look at is the team and that’s not only for a robotics investment, that’s for every kind of investment. Having a great team with good technology is important, but also – and this is rare – good knowledge of the agriculture sector, which means agricultural practice and knowledge of farmer mindsets is essential. Entrepreneurs in robotics have to have in mind that selling robots to farmers is hard. You have to know their habits, practices, and methods of cultivations. That’s why some startups take a long time before going to the market because a lot of startups have prototypes but they don’t sell. They maybe have one or two robots in the field. One of our criteria is does the startup already have significant sales, not a mere prototype? Have they already tested the market? A lot of startups can lose money and time because they don’t know the final customer. Do you require that of all of your investments? Yes. It can be small revenue, but we want revenue in the coming year. We want significant sales. We want companies with user-friendly robots for farmers. And one very important thing is customer service. When you sell robots you have to keep in mind that a lot of farmers will call you because the robot is not working as they want. The company has to have strong customer service and it can be expensive because it cannot only be on the phone. But it is crucial because if you sell a robot to a farmer and he can’t use it, your authority is coming down and one of the main assets in the robotics sector is the brand. You can compare it to the tractor sector; the brand is really crucial. Do you see a lot of consolidation coming in this sector? Yes. I have seen a lot of startups looking for money in the last month [to make acquisitions]. It is a very fragmented sector with a lot of small companies with specific IP. There is definitely an acceleration in M&A coming. Blue River was the first success story for robotics. I saw a lot of VCs looking at the sector and just one year ago they weren’t aware of the potential. Do you think these brands are going to survive all the M&A? It depends if the startups are raising money from a VC or family office or if the startup is raising money from a corporate. If it is from a VC they could keep their brand, but if they are acquired by a corporate they might lose their brand. I don’t know what John Deere is going to do with Blue River. It will be interesting.