Oct 17 Agtech Innovation & Investment / IPEC Geneva

Investment in Agriculture: Opportunities Across The Value Chain, IPEC, Geneva                                                                                         October 17, 2017
Agriculture is attracting greater levels of interest from institutional investors as they seek to diversify their portfolios and position themselves to take advantage of growing demand for food arising from global population growth and increased consumption by the emerging middle classes in developing countries. It has also been increasingly viewed and leveraged as sustainable/impact investment contributing to global sustainable development.
Investors seek access to the sector through investment in farmland, agricultural businesses or in technology companies looking to generate innovative technological solutions to agricultural problems (known as Agtech). Agtech has the potential to produce more food with fewer resources and less environmental impact. It is surfing on a wave of new technologies and innovations that threatens to disrupt the markets and profit pools of mature agribusiness companies. 67% of investors with a preference for agriculture/farmland funds would also invest in Agtech.
Where does the “Green” revolution stand? Will technology be the answer for food security? How to invest in the space? What are the biggest opportunities?
This IPEC-Geneva event will bring together a diverse panel of speakers from across the agriculture value chain and investment community to address those questions.

Alfred Evans, Founder & Director, Islan Investments
Alfred is an investment advisor focusing on opportunities that deliver financial returns with environmental and social benefits. He has 25 years of professional experience including serving as CEO of Climate Change Capital and as Chief Investment Officer of a market leading environmental markets fund. He has worked for GE’s Energy Services division, Bunge and Cargill with expertise in investing in agriculture and energy in emerging markets. Alfred has a JD from Columbia Law School and a Master of International Finance (Mathematics) from the University of Amsterdam.  

Francisco Norris – Co-founder, ZELP

Francisco Norris is the co-founder of ZELP (zero emissions livestock project), a company focused on reducing the environmental impact of the livestock industry. ZELP is developing wearable technology for cattle to convert methane into carbon dioxide and water, and is working on a certification platform for reduced methane livestock products. Francisco’s family are fourth generation farmers from Buenos Aires, Argentina, and are leading members of Argentina’s regional consortium of agricultural experimentation. He has worked in leading design firms in London, and has an MA in Information Experience Design(IED) from the Royal College of Art(RCA). His main areas of expertise lie in design technologies and making. 

Sean Peters – CEO, DryGro
Sean Peters is the CEO of DryGro, an agritech startup that has developed new techniques to grow animal feed. Using these new methods, DryGro can grow high quality feed in arid environments using very little water, at a fraction of the cost of traditional feed production methods. DryGro began at Oxford University in early 2015, and is launching their first demonstration farm in Kenya over Q3/Q4 2017. Previous to his work at DryGro, Sean directed the Entrepreneurship Database, a research program at Emory University focused on how to build better support systems to help startups grow. Sean holds an MBA from Oxford University and splits his time between London and Kenya. 

Peter Frohlich – CEO and Founder, AgriCircle
Peter has more than 20 years of experience in the agribusiness. He has been working in different senior positions at big ag-corporations as well as SMEs and started his own startup company in this area in 2012. In the last years, Peter has been focussing on digitisation in the agribusiness and is pushing towards best solutions to improve yields and lower emissions through cutting edge projects. Peter studied agronomy and holds an MBA from the University of St. Gallen.

Guillaume Maillard – Investment Director, Moringa Partnership

Pan Pan, MBA’03J, Moderator

Key Facts

When: Tuesday October 17, 2017
Where:Tiffany Hotel – Rue de l’Arquebuse 20, 1204 Genève
Tickets:  CHF 40 Swiss NAA members (paid up) // CHF 60 INSEAD Alumni (non-members) & Guests

Registration
Tickets for sale on XING EVENTS
https://en.xing-events.com/IPECGE17

Programme:
18:00 to 18:30: Registration
18:30 to 20:00: Panel and Q&A
20:00 to 21:00: Networking Apéro