Canadian venture capital firm Tall Grass Ventures has closed its oversubscribed Fund I on C$32 million ($23 million; €21 million).
The vehicle was backed by Farm Credit Canada and state-backed investor Manitoba First Fund, as well as by private equity investors, commodity brokers and traders, financial service firms and technology founders, among others.
Tall Grass Ventures Fund I invests in pre-Series A technology companies across the agriculture and food supply chain.
The fund primarily invests in companies across Canada that have applicability to the country’s agriculture sector.
Tall Grass has already invested in 11 companies including financial risk management platform Simple Hedge, protein content enhancing technology company AgGene and equipment management software IntelliCulture, among others.
Managing partner Wilson Acton commented: “As an emerging fund manager, in many ways we are a start-up similar to the companies in which we are investing. Since our inception, we have stayed true to our approach, focusing on how we are uniquely positioned to add value to a portfolio company as opposed to a singular focus on returns.
“The result is a balanced, full-cycle view that focuses on the inputs of building great companies which drives the output of leading returns. The support that we’ve received from the capital markets has been validating of our approach and focus.”
Manitoba First Fund CEO Ken Ross added: “We believe Tall Grass Ventures’ focus on early stage, agricultural innovation will create significant opportunities for Manitoba’s economy and communities, fostering growth and sustainability in a vital sector.
“This is the first start-up fund that we have invested with and we continue our focus to add further start-up funds to broaden our portfolio.”