This reliance was most pronounced during African Swine Fever when 60% of its pig population was wiped out and sows had to be flown in from Europe to fill the gaps. Imported pig breeds account for 80% of China’s pork supply. This deal speaks to the government’s high priority of boosting self-sufficiency in seeds and genetics. Pig breeding company Zhongxin Breeding raised a $372 million seed round, making it the first upstream deal to top China’s agrifood funding. Startups addressing gaping issues in China’s supply chain are able to leverage government-backed funding and a regulatory environment that increasingly favors these biotechnology companies. In contrast, biotechnology in agriculture has been riding on important top-down tailwinds, with investment almost tripling to reach close to $1 billion in 2022, instantly making it the single largest growth story for China last year.Īs China races to meet its dual goals of food security and food sustainability, biotechnology has become a centerpiece of its innovation-driven growth strategy. Nasdaq-listed MissFresh, which had a market cap of $2.27 billion at IPO, is on the verge of bankruptcy.

NiceTuan, having raised over $1 billion in total, closed in 2022. But investor optimism was not sustainable.Ĭovid’s supply chain challenges and increased logistical costs put these companies’ strained growth models under new stress: high cash-burn, growth-at-any-costs, and poor supply chain management. The country’s strict Covid lockdowns made delivered fresh food ubiquitous across generations and lower-tier cities. So what prompted this reshuffle, and what can we expect to see in 2023 and beyond? eGrocery moves aside, biotechnology steps inīack in 2021, eGrocery was China’s biggest funding story, drawing 75% of total investments. If you drill deeper into the figures, you can see that China’s agrifoodtech investing went through a major structural transition in 2022, with upstream investments - those to startups operating closer to the farm and in the midstream - accounting for almost all (96%) of the funding in a category historically dominated by downstream, consumer-driven sectors like food delivery. The views expressed in this guest article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of AFN.Ģ022 was a grim year for agrifoodtech investment, with funding down 44% year-on-year globally, in part driven by an 81% drop in funding in China. Editor’s Note: Matilda Ho is founder and managing director at Bits x Bites, China’s leading agrifoodtech venture capital firm with technology investments across the globe, ranging from gene editing and drone-based imagery to biosynthesized ingredients and alternative proteins.

Mathilda 2022