Annual meeting held in December brought together investors, portfolio companies, partners and team to celebrate this year’s achievements and aim for ambitious 2024 goals.
Part of a global Venture Capital network with a large regional presence in Latin America, The Yield Lab Latam (YLL) ends an intense year of partnerships and strategies in: Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Mexico – countries with local offices and invested companies – and Peru, Colombia and Uruguay, countries with portfolio companies. In 2023, YLL celebrated six years of operations in Latin America, with 21 companies invested in seven countries.
There were many achievements, including the expansion of YLL’s presence in Mexico, dozens of trips and participation in events to boost the entire innovation ecosystem across the region as well as outside Latam. Proof of this was the great meeting held in October 2023, in Saint Louis/USA, where the The Yield Lab’s story began, and now, consolidated as one of the largest venture capital managers in Latin American, it has opened ways for agrifood tech startups expand into the global market. On this recent trip, Cultivar STL was launched, an initiative to strengthen sustainable partnerships to contribute to economic growth in St. Louis and abroad.
With global visibility, the company operates, in addition to Latin America, in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, and it is this global presence which has added strength to The Yield Lab Latam to, through investors and new partners, be able to invest in new high-potential early-stage startups in Latin America.
The company is about to finalize its third fund, with assets of US$50 million, to invest in at least 30 new startups over the next five years in Latin America and the Caribbean. Over the past year and a half, it has made important progress with the entry of new investors, such as the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), supporting socioeconomic development and regional integration in Latin America and the Caribbean, Grupo Bimbo, the largest bread producer in the world, SQM, a Chilean mining company present in strategic sectors for sustainable development such as health and food, and Fondo de Fondos, a Mexican investment company.
“The fund aims to achieve US$50 million to invest in startups that are reshaping the agri-food value chain in an inclusive, transparent, innovative and disruptive way. Since its creation, it has been supported by well-known innovation market operators and institutional investors in several Latin American countries, with the focus on promoting innovation in the food and agriculture technology sector and being an important bridge between agri-food and venture capital food ecosystems across the region”, say together the The Yield Lab Latam team, led by Tomás Peña, Kieran Gartlan, Santiago Murtagh, Roberto Vitón and Camila Petignat.
The Yield Lab Latam has also advanced in its major partnership with the Swiss multinational Nestlé, in projects involving innovation and sustainability, developing action plans against climate change in the agricultural value chain. The strategic alliance consists of four fundamental pillars to promote the agriFoodTech ecosystem: Prepared Human Capital, Adequate Infrastructure, Healthy flow of financing and Solid leadership from the main industry representatives.
The 2023 Yield Lab Latam’s agenda also included the participation of spokespeople in the world’s largest agribusiness technology event in the United States, the World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit, where the YLL team and five other startups from the portfolio (Seedz, The Climate Box, Eiwa, Kilimo and Ucropit) connected with the global Agtech ecosystem, exchanging experiences and presenting how the venture capital universe has developed in Latin America. In June, YLL was one of the main sponsors of the World Agri-tech Innovation Summit held in São Paulo, when another great connection event happened between sector agents, for networking and new strategies.
About The Yield Lab Latam
Yield Lab Latam is the agriFood technology venture capital manager with the largest presence and experience across Latin America. Founded in 2017, it has offices in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico, with teams that work across the entire spectrum of innovation in food and agriculture, from farm to table.
Invests in high-potential early-stage startups based in Latin America that face the multiple challenges presented by the agri-food industry. Generates support programs for portfolio companies, from governance, talent, commercial strategy, escalation, fundraising, among others.