Land O’Lakes and Its Retailer-Owners Reshape the Future of Ag Tech Funding
October 2, 2025 Land O’Lakes, Inc. recently announced its role in AgRogue Growth Partners, a new initiative designed to accelerate the discovery, investment, and adoption of breakthrough agricultural technologies. Backed by Land O’Lakes and a coalition of retailer-owners, the initiative will invest up to $7 million in each of 10 to 15 companies focused on improving crop inputs, ag data, supply chain processes, business models and more.
CropLife spoke with Jason Trusley, Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at Land O’Lakes, about the challenges facing ag tech investment and how AgRogue Growth aims to bridge the gap between innovation and adoption.
It’s apparent that VC funding in ag tech has slowed in the past few years. One reason, according to Trusley, is a lot of venture money has shifted heavily toward AI, pulling capital from many sectors, including ag tech. On top of that, agriculture is a uniquely tough market to scale and patience is key.
Agriculture is profoundly different from other industries when it comes to scaling. For example, in most other industries it’s a matter of talking to 10 or so large companies that are representative of an entire industry, whereas in agriculture the industry is decentralized and its equivalent would be having to talk to 2.2 million farmers.
“The reality is that our industry is just materially different” when it comes to the typical VC funding model and process, explained Trusley.
Rethinking the VC Funding Model
Several years ago, a gathering of retailers and leaders at Land O’Lakes headquarters started exploring the potential for pooling resources to invest in early-stage companies and then using their scale to grow those investments faster.
For Trusley, this felt like the “secret sauce” that had been missing in venture financing and venture innovation in agriculture. It was also the genesis of AgRogue Growth Partners.
San Diego, California-based Radicle Growth is leading the investment and innovation strategy for AgRogue Growth Partners.
Since the announcement of the AgRogue Growth Partners, Trusley has already received over 100 email inquiries, and now they’re working on narrowing down to the top options.
As for the evaluation and vetting process, “It really comes down to taking the scientific leadership at Radicle Growth, along with the innovation leadership at WinField United, the agronomic innovation, and the go-to-market expertise of our retail partners and stitching that all together” to arrive at a mutual decision, explained Trusley.
This partnership is unique, added Trusley.
“We’re passionate about making sure that we’re positioning our farmer-owners such that when the local retailer wins, then Radicle Growth and Land O’Lakes also win,” said Trusley. “That’s a different perspective than a lot of corporate VC funds, which are often looking at ‘What financial returns can this bring to me?’”
Ultimately, “We want to move the margin back into the hands of the farmer,” he said.
“The farmer is our North Star,” emphasized Trusley. “And it’s about assuring that we’re aligning to the needs and the challenges that those growers and producers are trying to solve for, and in doing so, build durability into the retail system and into the coop system.”
Trusley said that AgRogue Growth Partners is looking for others who are trying to solve similar challenges in agriculture.
“But we’re doing it in a different place. We’re doing it later in the [ag tech development lifecycle], which is attracting a different type of investor. One that is less interested primarily in financial returns and more interested in strategic returns.”
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