San Francisco, California, United States
Rob is a Founding Partner at AgFunder (http://agfunder.com) ranked as a top 100 VC firms by @TIME. We invest in early-stage deeptech and deep science startups where the technology is, or could be adapted to, solving problems in food, ag, or the planet. Investments areas include AI, robotics, drones, biotech, techbio, synbio, materials science, photonics, and therapeutics. Rob is a Forbes contributor and has also been published in TechCrunch, Harvard Business Review, Financial Post, and twice in Nature journals (>500 citations across both publications). Rob has been invited to chair, speak, and keynote at dozens of global conferences. Rob has been interviewed by Bloomberg TV, CNBC (TV), Wall Street Journal, Forbes, LA Times, TechCrunch, Entrepreneur, FastCompany, and Reuters. Rob has five degrees, spanning Philosophy, Computer Science (AI/Virtual Robotics), and Computational and Theoretical Biology, including a PhD from Yale University. You can contact him at [email protected]
AgFunder is one of the most active foodtech and agtech focused venture capital firms globally. We are a new kind of VC firm that leverages our media and research platform of over 65,000 members and subscribers to give us access to the best deal flow and network to support our portfolio companies.
(Acquired for $250m 13 months after our investment) Bear Flag Robotics is developing autonomous driving technology for farm tractors. Currently, we do this by equipping tractors and implements with technology that allows growers to automate many of their most common tasks.
(Greenlight went public in 2022 valued at $1.5b) GreenLight Biosciences is a biotechnology company focused on sustainable production of chemicals and fuels using its patented Cell free bioprocessing technology platform. This revolutionary technology enables the biological conversion of economical, renewable substrates to valuable products with unprecedented flexibility and control.
(RootAI was acquired by $APPHW in 2021) Root AI has developed a harvesting robot for greenhouses.
(Impact Vision was acquired by Apeel Biosceinces in 2020) ImpactVision is a machine learning company applying hyperspectral imaging technology to food supply chains to reduce waste, maximize yields and improve quality