Focus on Finance
Join us for a one-day event designed to connect innovation with investment across the agri-tech and agri-food sectors.
The event brings together start-ups seeking funding, academics exploring commercialisation routes, investors looking for high-quality deal flow, and industry professionals supporting business growth and innovation.
You will gain insights into the full funding ecosystem – from public grants and early-stage angel investment through to venture capital, corporate venturing and debt finance. Speakers will share practical advice and perspectives on the current investment landscape, helping attendees better understand how to access finance and scale innovation successfully.
The day will also feature a live start-up pitching session, a highlight of the programme, showcasing emerging companies actively seeking investment and growth opportunities.
"Really great event; it was the first AgriTech focused event I have attended and I found it fascinating!" - Focus on Finance 2025 attendee
Call for pitching start-ups is closed now.
Who should attend:
- Tech developers and business leaders needing finance to take their commercial venture to the next level – early, mid or late
- Researchers and entrepreneurs seeking their first investments to establish proof of concept and feasibility
- Private investors (including angels, VCs, family offices) looking for deal flows or meeing new exciting companies
- Representatives of grant-awarding bodies looking to help those who are raising money navigate the public funding landscape
- Professional business support companies that are keen to offer help and advice to businesses as they grow
- Delegates interested in understanding more about the current investment and finance landscape for agri-tech in the UK.
Huge thanks to Innovate UK for supporting this event.
Innovate UK is the UK's innovation agency. We back deep tech businesses in the UK's priority sectors for national benefit, supporting their journey from startup to scaling business to industry leader. We provide the funding, expert support and connections to help breakthrough ideas reach their potential, improve lives and drive economic growth. Innovate UK is part of UK Research and Innovation.
Headline Sponsor:
SyndetAI was built by people who've sat on both sides of the investment conversation - within startups and as investors. The friction we kept running into was the same from either side: how long it takes to reach a common understanding. Diligence is time-consuming and hard to scale. Working out what investors are actually looking for is slow and, often demoralising. That's why we built SyndetAI - a platform that produces analyst-grade research on early-stage companies. Investors get a comprehensive view of a company measured across multiple dimensions, and founders get a full picture of how an investment analyst would assess their public footprint. Both sides start talking from a common baseline, and the conversation moves faster from there.
Opportunity to exhibit:
A small number of exhibition opportunities are available. This is a great opportunity to showcase your organisation and connect directly with innovators, industry professionals and decision-makers. The cost for members / non-members is £250 / £330 (ex. VAT).
Cost:
General event attendee / Agri-TechE non-member: £100 (ex VAT).
If your organisation is listed in our Member Directory, you’re eligible for a discounted rate. The discount is applied automatically at checkout based on your membership tier. To access it, simply login or register with your company email address.
Not a member? Join today!
Investors can email Agri-TechE to discount tickets to £60 (+VAT).
Please note the fee is non-refundable for cancellation within 5 working days of the event.
Agenda
Welcome words from the event sponsor:
Antony Yousefian is General Partner at The First Thirty (TFT.VC), a venture firm investing in AgriHealth: the deeptech proving what's grown delivers measurable human health outcomes. TFT's thesis is that the food system's next wave of value will accrue not to consumer brands or supply chain efficiency, but to the biological signal linking soil to health, and to those who can prove cause and effect. He started in capital markets at Investec and CICC, then moved into agtech as an operator: a first-cheque investor and director at 30MHz, founder of an agtech venture inside an 800-hectare farm, and SVP at Wiliot. Antony is Co-Chair of the Investor Coalition on Food Policy, an Earthshot Prize nominator, and advisor to the Food Foundation.
Current funding opportunities
Fabrizio Ticchiarelli-Marjot is the Science and Technology Lead at ARIA, where he provides technical leadership for the agency's portfolios in crop science and agtech. ARIA is funding innovations that explore what it would take to make plants more programmable: from new ways to design and assemble lab-made chromosomes and chloroplasts, to better methods control plants through the use of electricity, magnetism or engineered microorganisms.
In his role, Fabrizio works closely with ARIA funded teams to support the portfolio's scientific direction, understand technical progress, and identify how emerging tools and platforms could benefit the wider research community.
Fabrizio is a plant scientist with a PhD from the University of Cambridge and over a decade of experience spanning academic plant biology, lab automation, and early-stage agri-tech. Before joining ARIA, he worked at Synthace, advising pharma and crop protection companies on lab automation and experimental design, and at Gardin, where he led the plant science team and helped deliver the company’s R&D product offering. His work has focused on connecting plant biology with practical tools, platforms, and products for research and agriculture.
Archie is a qualified accountant and investment professional with a track record spanning private equity due diligence, venture building, and food sector strategy.
Before Bramble, he was at True Capital as a Director, advising PE and VC funds and global corporates including Waitrose, M&S, ABFoods and Morrisons on investment strategy and food system innovation. He began his career at PwC before joining the John Lewis Partnership, where he spent five years in prgressively senior roles, latterly leading the group innovation team.
Today, Archie is Partner and CFO of Bramble Investments, where he leads investment evaluation, fund governance and operations. He sits on the Investment Committee of the Macmillan Innovation Impact Investment Fund.
10 pitching start-ups. One room. What happens when investors get to see what’s coming next?
About Chair:
Dr Emma Chapelhow is COO of an ag-tech company and a recognised leader in UK agricultural innovation, with a track record spanning strategy, collaboration and thought leadership across the sector. Her experience includes helping steer innovation and collaboration at the UK Agri-Tech Centre, connecting industry, policy and technology to drive positive change. A strong advocate for inclusion, Emma serves on the board of Women in Food and Farming, founded the Farms Without Fences SEND initiative, and was named Rising Star at the 2026 National Women in Agriculture Awards.
