Germany-headquartered chemicals producer BASF’s corporate venturing arm, BASF Venture Capital, has provided $4m for an agricultural technology-focused fund formed by Brazil-based venture capital firm SP Ventures called AgVentures II.
The commitment represenets BASF Venture Capital’s first deal in Brazil, it said. The unit invested alongside other unnamed limited partners consisting of financial services firms, multinational companies and family offices.
BASF Venture Capital contributed to India-based, agtech-oriented VC firm Omnivore’s second fund earlier this year, and has also invested in non-toxic pesticide developer Provivi and energy storage system producer ESS in the past month.
AgVentures II intends to invest in more than 20 Latin America-based developers of agricultural and food technologies, some of which will also receive market and technical mentoring from BASF.
Markus Solibieda, managing director of BASF Venture Capital, said: “We look forward to supporting promising startups and our business colleagues with this investment. As a partner of AgVentures II, we are preparing the ground for our own future direct investment activities in Brazil and Latin America.”
