AgTech Advisory Collective forms to guide agrifood corporates, startups: ‘We’re not your typical consulting firm’

Agtech consultants have a big business these days as more and more entrepreneurs join the sector and grapple with the complexities of getting to market. So it was only a matter of time before a bunch of them joined forces to better advise startups, corporates, and others in the space.

The newly announced AgTech Advisory Collective is one such group, made up of several different independent services collectively aiming to provide a broader range of expertise and services to those in the agtech industry.

“Right now, more and more individuals are doing independent consulting work on a specific focus area, whether that’s go to market, capital raising or product validation,” AgTech-Pro‘s Patrick Honcoop explained to AgFunderNews in a recent conversation.

Honcoop is one of the core members of the new collective, alongside Alan Fetters of US-based AGceleration Advisory; AVL advisor Alejo Valverde Lyons; France-based AgTech Market founder Maxence Guillaumot; Michael Macalino of Australia-based Recode Ventures; and Rhishi Pethe of Metal Dog Labs, based in the US.

‘Not your typical consulting firm’

The group behind AgTech Advisory Collective is “not your typical consulting firm,” according to Honcoop.

“Everyone has a background in farming and agtech, working the industry for many years, so we can pull in a large, extensive network with investors, corporates, and associations.”

For example, he said, the collective could help companies consider go-to-market strategies in multiple regions.

“Many companies struggle and fail in really successfully going into a new region, because they often underestimate the complexity and just do not have the local knowledge or local network.”

The group’s regional diversity enables it to “help these companies by providing them access to local people, to local networks, and also local knowledge of the market that will offer higher chance of succeeding,” he added.

“Hiring consultants provide startups access to extensive experience and skills, without the need of having to hire full time employees,” explained Honcoop. “It also provides broad range experience and network that sets them up for success (not making the same mistakes). For corporates and investors it helps to get a holistic and neutral view on the agtech landscape and helps to challenges their internal biases.”

Each member will continue projects specific to their own firms while contributing to others under the AgTech Advisory Collective banner.

Honcoop expects that list to expand over time, though he notes that it’s important to “ensure everyone brings an additional new value to the group,” be it a region or skillset. Biological inputs, for example, is one area where the group still needs individuals with expertise and backgrounds.

A handful of “strategic alliances” including Upstream Ag, Verdant Parters, and Schultz Collaborative will provide additional expertise.

Focus on long-term partnerships

“We want to work long term with clients,” Honcoop noted, adding that it’s important to be with client companies along their entire journey, not just at one individual point.

“We have folks that can help early on with product-market fit and validation, that really are underground with growers, then we have people that can help more with the commercial strategy and business development. If they are getting ready for an exit, we have also expertise in there.”

There is also, he said, a big opportunity to work with agrifood corporates “by providing answers to difficult questions around what’s going on in the space and how they can further leverage technologies.”

Having a full group of consultants is particularly advantageous when it comes to working with these corporates, he added.

“Going on your own to a corporate is difficult because they always look for the larger group. The value that we can provide the corporates [is] the global coverage and network of individuals. We can help with market research, innovation scouting, and also innovation strategies.”

With AgTech Collective, he said, “We can all be more visible as a group and also provide more resources to deliver better results to the client. We can pull in different resources depending on skills and on the project.”