Tall Grass Ventures (TGV) has raised $32 million CAD for its inaugural fund to support early-stage AgTech Startups and foodtech firms in the Prairies and beyond. TGV’s primary limited partners (LPs) are the provincially supported Manitoba First Fund, which joined as part of Fund I’s final close last week, and Farm Credit Canada.
Fund I’s other limited partners include unnamed grain and animal producers, livestock feeders, commodity brokers and dealers, financial services firms, private equity investors, technology inventors, and industry experts from agriculture, energy, construction, and marketing.
Wilson Acton, TGV co-founder and managing partner, believes the venture capital (VC) firm has “a ton of room to run” as it seeks to invest in more startups innovating across the agri-food supply chain.
“There’s very few [VC] firms [across Canada], even globally, that are exclusively focused on agriculture and food,” Acton informed the audience. “Why that’s important is it allows us—and forces us—to be deeply knowledgeable about the industry problems and the ways to accelerate.”
TGV is one of a small but rising number of local venture capital firms that specialize in AgTech entrepreneurs.
This cohort includes Regina’s Emmertech, Calgary-based Carrot Ventures, The51’s Food and AgTech Fund, SVG Ventures Thrive (the Canadian division of Silicon Valley’s SVG Ventures), and London’s RHA Ventures, among others—many of which are also backed by FCC. TGV’s thesis, founded in 2022 by Acton, a lawyer-turned-AgTech entrepreneur-turned-investor, and fellow managing partner Chris Edwards, an energy sector veteran with engineering and investment experience, is vast in scope.