Top Food, Agriculture Startups of 2020

New list names the 32 most innovative agri-food startups of the past year

In recent years, the majority of growth in the food and beverage industry has gone to companies outside the top 20 players, with smaller and more agile brands capitalizing on the demand for personalized products and rapidly shifting consumer behavior and the farm and fork growing more connected every year.

Lux Research's food and agriculture experts continuously monitor and evaluate these and other industry megatrends and events to target and analyze promising startups capable of capturing the opportunities created. These startups are evaluated on their technology, business strategy, leadership, and market positioning, and those companies awarded a "Lux Positive" or "Lux Strong Positive" rating were published in Lux's market map "Top Food and Agriculture Startups of 2020."

"Numerous challenges, from climate to COVID to human migration, aligned in 2020 to stifle growth across food and agriculture, laying bare technology, food, and health system weaknesses," explains Josh Haslun, Ph.D., senior analyst at Lux Research. "These vivid impacts are not without opportunity, even as the lines across value chains blur. Picking the right startups and partners to remain ahead in this dynamic period is critical, and Lux's methodology and expert knowledge achieve that outcome."

The startups are categorized into four key trends the agri-food industry should be tracking:

1. The Food Company of 2050 – Major food companies face intense competition from smaller, more agile brands. With personalization in focus, there are fewer benefits to being big; innovating at an increasingly granular, regiospecific level to address changing consumer demands will be key.

2. Doing More with Less – Companies whose businesses rely on consumption for top-line growth – from foods to agrichemicals – face pressure to diversify. Meanwhile, producers are reducing resource use, driven by concerns of affordability and scarcity. With the exception of new product innovations, linking services and products to measurable outcomes through digital integration is becoming increasingly important.

3. Transformative Innovations Disrupt the Entire Ecosystem – Major transformative innovations underlie the products and services that drive consumer markets; innovations in bioinformatics, POU sensing, and ingredient informatics are disrupting the space to reduce the cost of and resource investment in discovery.

4. Consumers' relationships with health are evolving toward prevention and personalization – Prevention and personalization are reshaping consumers' choices, empowering them to make lifestyle decisions that explicitly influence health outcomes. This will drive massive market potential.

The named top startups include: TerraCycle, Aphea.Bio, Agrorim, Agritask, Montana Microbial, Solynta, FoodLogiQ, Ceradis Crop Protection, Supplant, ProAgni, Growcentia, SmartSolve, eLEAF, Plantix, SatAgro, Saturas, Azotic Technologies, Pacific GeneTech, Vibe Imaging Analytics, Enko Chem, Tropic Biosciences, Conagen, Descartes Labs, Brightseed, Lavie Bio, Biomeme, Ectosense, LifeFuels, Notpla, Prolupin, Inbiose, and Perfect Day.