---
title: Food and Agriculture Investor Anterra Capital Raises $100 Million Fund After Sitting Out Vertical Farming and Rapid Grocery
description: Food and agriculture investor Anterra Capital has reached a $100 million first close on Fund III after sitting out vertical farming and rapid grocery delivery.
author: Darie Nani (Editor-in-Chief)
updated: 2026-06-15T07:43:03.277Z
canonical: https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/anterra-capital-100m-agriculture-fund
image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/anterra-partners.webp
categories: Artificial Intelligence, Business, Startups
content_type: News
region: Amsterdam, Boston
publication: Sovereign Magazine
about:
  - type: Organization
    name: Anterra Capital
    description: Anterra Capital is a venture capital firm focused on food and agriculture, with offices in Amsterdam and Boston. Founded in 2013, it invests in and builds companies that apply life-science and software innovations to the sector, and says it manages more than $500 million across three funds.
    url: https://anterracapital.com
    foundingDate: 2013-01-01T00:00:00.000Z
    industry: Venture Capital
    sameAs:
      - https://www.linkedin.com/company/anterra-capital/
---

Anterra Capital, the food and agriculture venture firm with offices in Amsterdam and Boston, has reached a $100 million first close on its third fund, against a target of $200 million. The firm reached that point after twelve years in which it avoided several of the most heavily funded trends in its sector.

Across two capital cycles, it says it passed on alternative protein and ten-minute grocery delivery when both were at their most fashionable, and instead backed companies built on conventional unit economics that could scale through existing industry channels.

## Vertical Farming, Alternative Protein and the Agtech Bust

For a stretch after 2020, generalist money poured into agriculture and food technology. Global investment in the sector reached close to $52 billion in 2021, according to figures cited by Anterra, before falling back to roughly $16 billion, around 2016 levels. Much of that capital went into ideas that were expensive to build and hard to scale: indoor vertical farms, plant-based meat substitutes and rapid grocery delivery.

Several of those companies have since collapsed. AeroFarms and AppHarvest, [two of the best-funded vertical farming companies](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/indoor-agricultural-data-tools-drive-sector-resilience-amid-challenges), filed for bankruptcy in 2023. Bowery Farming, once valued at around $2.3 billion, ceased operations in November 2024. Plenty, which had raised close to $1 billion, filed for bankruptcy in March 2025. In rapid grocery, Getir bought its rival Gorillas for about 1.1 billion euros in 2022, then withdrew from the United States and most of Europe in 2024. These were the categories Anterra says it declined to chase.

## Why Anterra Is Raising an Agriculture Fund Now

Anterra argues that the retreat of generalist capital is itself the opportunity. With valuations reset and the more speculative investors gone, the firm describes the present as the most attractive entry point in its twelve years.

"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."

## An Agriculture Investment Fund That Builds Companies

Anterra also builds companies itself, rather than only investing in them, founding them where it sees a gap and recruiting the teams. Two have already produced exits. Invetx, a veterinary biologics company Anterra helped start in 2018, was acquired by Dechra Pharmaceuticals in 2024 for up to $520 million, one of the larger exits in animal health. Enko, founded in 2017, is developing crop protection chemistry intended to replace older compounds such as glyphosate, and has signed research partnerships with Bayer and Syngenta. The firm's earlier funds also produced a Nasdaq listing in Caribou Biosciences, the gene-editing company that went public in 2021.

## Why AI in Agriculture Is Central to the Fund

The case for raising now rests on [artificial intelligence reaching an industry that earlier software largely skipped](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/5-surprising-ways-ai-in-agriculture-is-solving-real-world-problems-from-virginia-to-china). Food and agriculture is, by Anterra's framing, a roughly $10 trillion industry employing close to 1.3 billion people, and one of the least digitized. The firm points to two shifts at once: vertical AI, software built for a single sector, where it says investment roughly tripled in a year; and the use of AI in biology, which is shortening research timelines and lowering the cost of reaching a first commercial product. Both, in Anterra's view, change the economics of building in food and agriculture.

## Who Is Backing Anterra Capital's Third Fund

The fund's backers include Rabobank, among the largest banks focused on food and agriculture, and Novo Holdings, one of the larger life sciences investors. The firm also names Zoetis, the animal health company, among its supporters. Beyond the institutions, Anterra says its limited partners include operators who between them farm more than 13 million acres and run sizeable food retail, consumer goods and produce logistics businesses, which can give its portfolio companies access to potential customers.

"The vote of confidence from our investor base is what gives this close its weight," said Adam Anders, Partner at Anterra Capital.

## Anterra's First Fund III Investments

The new fund has made two investments so far. The first is [Anchr, an AI platform for the back office of food distribution](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/anchr-5-8m-erp-food-distribution), backed alongside a16z Speedrun. The second, according to Anterra, is Animerra, a veterinary biologics company the firm founded and built, applying the same approach it used with Invetx.

"We've spent twelve years and two funds proving you can build category-defining companies in food and agriculture," said Brett Wong, Partner at Anterra Capital. "What's changed is that the world has finally caught up to that thesis. The technology is here, the valuations make sense, and the founders building in this sector are the best we've ever seen."

Anterra, founded in 2013, says it now manages more than $500 million across three funds.

## FAQ

**Q: What is Anterra Capital?**
Anterra Capital is a venture firm focused on food and agriculture, with offices in Amsterdam and Boston. Founded in 2013, it invests in and builds companies that apply life-science and software innovations to the sector, and says it manages more than $500 million across three funds.

**Q: How large is Anterra's third fund?**
Anterra has reached a $100 million first close on Fund III and is targeting a total of $200 million. The fund has made two investments so far, in the food distribution platform Anchr and the veterinary biologics company Animerra.

**Q: Why did so many vertical farming companies fail?**
The largest indoor farming companies raised heavily during the 2020 to 2021 funding peak but struggled with the high cost of building and running their facilities. AeroFarms and AppHarvest filed for bankruptcy in 2023, Bowery Farming closed in 2024, and Plenty filed for bankruptcy in 2025. Anterra cites this as an example of capital-intensive bets that did not scale.

**Q: What is vertical AI in agriculture?**
Vertical AI refers to artificial intelligence built for a specific industry rather than general use. In agriculture, it means software aimed at the sector's particular workflows and data, an area Anterra argues has been underserved by earlier technology and is now drawing rapidly rising investment.