North Carolina Is Sowing Seeds of Success for AgTech Startups

By AgReads

There is a powerful competitive advantage for AgTech startups located in North Carolina, with the key determinant of success being proximity to a healthy ecosystem that provides access to talent, patient capital, entrepreneurial development, and existing market opportunities in the context of a supportive and committed legislature. It is by no accident, reports AgReads, that North Carolina is one of the most fertile AgTech startup ecosystems in the world; the state’s government in collaboration with some of the top research and agriculture institutions in the US, alongside the world’s largest agricultural companies, have worked diligently to leverage the human and natural capital abundant in the region. Agribusiness is the number one industry in North Carolina, contributing in excess of $100B last year towards the state’s economy. As such, North Carolina is one of the top agricultural producers in the US through its broadly diverse offerings, including hogs and poultry, sweet potatoes, tobacco, soybean and Christmas trees. For the second year in a row, North Carolina is ranked as the #1 state for business in the US, scoring highest in the nation for its workforce and near the top of the list in the areas of the economy, technology, innovation, and education, bolstered by a business-friendly corporate tax rate currently at 2.5% that will be eliminated by 2030.

Indeed, North Carolina is now a global powerhouse in the AgTech innovation space, showcasing Research Triangle Park (RTP), which places in the top 10 Global AgTech & New Food Startup Ecosystems lauded for its knowledge base, startup experience, talent, and performance. In 1959, a public-university-industry collaborative effort to leverage the state’s rich farming heritage and large talent pool, resulted in the formation of the RTP in Durham, currently the largest high-tech research and development park in the US, that coalesced into a force of attraction drawing in the world’s largest agricultural corporations – the first step in anchoring and driving the development of the AgTech ecosystem in North Carolina. Ryan Combs, Executive Director of the Research Triangle Regional Partnership (RTRP), champions Central North Carolina and the surrounding region, “Being the best comes naturally to us. The Research Triangle Region is not only where innovation is made, it’s where innovation is put to work.”

Since 1960, North Carolina has been home, at one time or other, to the world’s largest agricultural companies including BASF, Syngenta, Novozymes, Bayer, Monsanto, UPL, Corteva (DuPont), ADAMA, NuFarm Americas, Verdesian, Plant Health Care and Mosaic Biotech, in large part the result of the preeminent US example of a state-led recruitment effort to attract high-tech companies. This laid the foundation for a powerful business platform on which nearly 200 AgTech and new food sector companies currently operating in North Carolina have built their successes.