The story of this year’s World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit in San Francisco echoed recent years’ events. A funding slump and a constrained exit environment is pushing the agtech ecosystem to recalibrate expectations on funding and valuations, so they can survive to bring about the future of farming.
AgTechNavigator Editors Ryan Daily and Oliver Morrison shared their experience from this year’s World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit in a video recap, discussing the top trends and takeaways. Below are four takeaways from that video:
1. Agtech founders focus on business fundamentals
2025 was another down year for venture capital funding in the agtech space, garnering $6.6 billion across 805 deals, a 2.6% decline in value and a 24.1% drop in deals compared to 2025, per PitchBook data. Agtech start-ups are surviving the capital crunch by maintaining capital efficiency and generating revenues at an early stage.
Israel-based mechanical weeding start-up AgriPass expects to generate $1 million in revenues this year, after raising $7.5 million in funding. Similarly, Innov8.ag plans to generate about the same amount in annual recurring revenue for its digital farming software for specialty crop growers. Both companies attended this year’s event.
“It’s been a challenging environment, and it’s going to be a challenging 2026, but I think there’s a little bit of a light at the end of the tunnel,” Daily said. “We’re seeing founders who are getting to their seed stage, and they’re actually generating revenues.”
2. OEMs turn to agtech start-ups for inspiration, acquisitions
Major original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and ag leaders are poised to capitalize on lower agtech valuations, as they seek to strengthen their research and development (R&D) and product pipeline. OEMs, like John Deere, Kubota, CNH, and AGCO, shared their vision for the future in various World Agri-Tech panels.
“We know investment is down. We know that’s forcing founders and startups to prove that their innovation is going to work and there’s demand on the farm for them, and that they’re going to be profitable. But more interesting questions are: Will it force incumbents to ... spend on R&D and take higher risk bets,” Morrison elaborated.
John Deere and Kubota already acquired or partnered with agtech start-ups to enhance their capabilities. For instance, John Deere acquired GUSS Automation last fall, and Kubota invested in precision weeding start-up Kilter last month.
3. Geopolitical risks disrupt everything
Geopolitics are not only disrupting farming operations, but they are also influencing how start-ups and OEMs are responding to the moment. Last year, John Deere experienced headwinds to its tractor business due to tariffs placed on steel and volatility spurred by the Trump administration’s trade policy.
“John Deere had a better-than-expected Q1 this year. They were signaling to the market that it was going to be a good year — that it was going to be a rebound year in the OEM, ag machinery market. And then the Iran war happened,” Daily elaborated.
She added, John Deere is “looking to build out their recurring revenue models as a hedge against some of those macro trends that we’re seeing.”
4. Quantum computing enters the R&D discussion
AI, gene editing, and automation were all the rage at this year’s event, but bleeding-edge technologies, like quantum computing, are starting to enter the conversation as a tool to help develop the next-generation of hybrids, Daily and Morrison shared.
During World Agri-Tech, Syngenta revealed a partnership with QuantumBasel to explore the application of quantum computing for use in developing new hybrids, AgTechNavigator previously reported. Syngenta is positioning quantum computing as part of its long-term R&D strategy to help deliver new crop protection products.
“We will start to hit limits of what is possible with the current computational technologies. Now, obviously, quantum is not yet mature to be at production scale, but we want to make sure that we are learning what it can do, what is possible with this technology, and how we can use that to deepen our research capabilities,” Feroz Sheikh, chief information and digital officer at Syngenta, told AgTechNavigator.
