Brightlands Agrifood Ventures, a venture capital fund focused on the Brightlands campuses in the Netherlands, has reached a €20m ($22.7m) a second close, with diversified holding group Van Herk Groep among the limited partners.
Van Herk, which invested through investment arm Van Herk Ventures, and Limburgse Land- en Tuinbouwbond, an agricultural and horticultural association for farmers in the Dutch province of Limburg, each committed €1m, as did an unnamed private individual.
The first close had attracted financial services firm Rabobank Venlo, the provincial government of Limburg and its regional development agency LIOF as well as state-owned enterprise agency Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland’s Seed Capital scheme.
Brightlands Agrifood Ventures will back approximately 10 companies operating in the agritech space, including developers of products for crop protection and optimisation, seed improvement, precision agriculture, valorisation of agricultural and horticultural waste and healthy nutrition.
The fund was launched in October 2017 and is managed by VC manager Chemelot Ventures Management. It will specifically target companies with a connection to Brightlands Campus Greenport Venlo, one of four campuses that comprise the Brightlands ecosystem.
Brightlands is a triple helix initiative formed by Maastricht University and its Maastricht University Medical Center+, Zuyd University of Applied Sciences and Fontys University of Applied Sciences’ International Campus Venlo together with the government of Limburg and several companies.
Kim de Boer, fund manager of Brightlands Agrifood Ventures, said: “We are happy to welcome these additional investors to the fund. Each of these parties have a strong added value to help build startups and enhance the Brightlands ecosystem in the agrifood domain.”
The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.
