A lot of folks hit the age of 40 and decide to buy a sports car or get a divorce, says Simon Haldrup, co-founder and CEO of soil-carbon startup Agreena. Finding neither prospect appealing, Haldrup turned his attention instead to his career, where he had spent the last decade-and-a-half in finance. “I had a really clear vision of wanting to spend the rest of my career driving impact,” he tells AgFunderNews. That path eventually led to co-founding Agreena, a platform that helps farmers to plan, track and validate their transitions to regenerative agriculture practices that store soil carbon. The idea is to help farmers build a revenue stream and overcome technical barriers associated with regen ag

Once lauded as the next big thing for the agrifoodtech industry and a solution to climate change, agroforestry carbon farming services face a tough road ahead: in the first half of 2024, they raised just one-tenth of the $100 million raised in the same period a year earlier.Agroforestry carbon services companies support farmers and foresters in adopting sustainable and regenerative practices that sequester and store carbon, earning them carbon credits to trade on the voluntary carbon market. Credits must be measured and certified before trading — typically using “measurement, reporting, and verification” (MRV) services, and then traded on marketplaces; some companies do both.Engaging farmers remains a significant challenge, however. According to a 2024 Purdue survey, low ROI is a major barrier, with only 8% of respondents discussing carbon capture and contracts with companies. As a result, agricultural carbon credits presently account for just over 1% of total carbon credits issued.But the industry has also seen its fair share of controversy, including high-profile scandals involving carbon certification and offset providers like South Pole and Verra, which were investigated for allegedly providing fake certifications for carbon offsetting programs. These issues, coupled with a drop in funding in 2023, kicked off a turbulent period for the industry, perhaps surprising some venture capital firms, several of whom had identified carbon as a category to invest in for that year.The broader economic environment has certainly posed difficulties too; the second half of 2022 saw the end of cheap money and inflated tech valuations due to war, high inflation, and supply chain disruptions. This shift significantly impacted the entire agrifoodtech funding landscape, which had reached a record $51.7 billion in 2021, to backtrack to $32 billion in 2022, and then plummet to below $16 billion in 2023.When in 2023 AgFunder polled a range of venture capital investors focused on foodtech and agtech to get their predictions for the year, several respondents mentioned carbon as a key area of interest for investors and innovators

Disclosure: AgFunderNews’ parent company is AgFunder. Agtech deals of 2023 followed much the same trajectory as other tech sectors, with lower valuations and far fewer mega-rounds than seen in the VC heyday of 2021 and early 2022. This year also saw a shift towards more investment in climate-focused solutions, hence the multiple waste-to-energy startups and carbon-related companies on the list below. Ag biotechnology, which includes the biologicals sector, was another strong category this year