Innovation Endeavors and Flextronics' Lab IX Launch Farm2050, a Collective to Help Solve Global Food Challenge

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - Nov 20, 2014) - Today, Innovation Endeavors and Flextronics' Lab IX announced the launch of Farm2050, a collective of industry partners in agriculture. Farm2050's mission is to catalyze groundbreaking innovation by providing entrepreneurs the network and resources to build the foundation for a better agricultural future. The collective to date includes leading companies such as AGCO, DuPont, Google, Sensitech Inc. (a part of UTC Building & Industrial Systems, a unit of United Technologies Corp), and 3D Robotics.

Farm2050 presents a new type of ecosystem that goes far beyond capital. The collective will support entrepreneurs who are working on technology and innovation in agriculture through a variety of means, including capital, manufacturing capabilities, test facilities, and mentorship.

This collective was created to address global food security challenges by leveraging technology and innovation to build big agricultural businesses. To meet the demand of a growing population, food production must increase by ~70 percent in an increasingly challenging environment characterized by climate change, resource scarcity, and evolving diets. This implies significant growth in an already large market -- estimated at $120 billion in net farm income annually -- and robust opportunity to start meaningful ventures.

Dror Berman, Managing Partner at Innovation Endeavors, reaffirmed the opportunity for technology to address the food challenge: "By 2050, we will need to feed more than 10 billion people. This is a tall order but also the type of challenge that technologists should be working to solve."

Historically, technology has been critical to supporting the world's growth. Berman mentions, "100 years ago we saw the Haber-Bosch process enable fertilizer development. 50 years ago we saw the refrigerated truck facilitate the long-distance transport of perishables. And today we're seeing the emergence of robotics and machine learning applied to agricultural practices."

Farm2050 is excited about the way entrepreneurs can apply cutting-edge technologies to improve food production and how advances in data science and robotics enable the world to rethink the way we seed, cultivate, and harvest food. Although data science and robotics are important themes, Farm2050 keeps its doors open to all types of innovation that can help to improve agriculture.

"We are excited about entrepreneurs working at the intersection of emerging technology and big market opportunities to build things with the power to truly change the world," said Lior Susan, Head of Lab IX and New Ventures at Flextronics. "As talented founders address the food challenge, we look forward to providing access to a powerful ecosystem of innovative people, ideas, markets, and resources that can be leveraged as we can collaborate to improve and enable our agricultural future."

For more information and to bring your ideas to the table, please visit www.farm2050.com and "like" us on Facebook: facebook.com/Farm.2050.ag

Tweet this: Congrats to @iendeavors and @FlextronicsLab9 on the launch of the @Farm2050 collective. To learn more visit: http://www.farm2050.com/ #globalfoodchallenge #agtech

Innovation Endeavors: Innovation Endeavors combines an evergreen VC fund with a unique approach to venture creation to help entrepreneurs build lasting companies that will have significant financial and human impact. With offices in Palo Alto and Tel Aviv and backed by Eric Schmidt, we have the ability to rally behind entrepreneurs and support them as they develop first-of-their-kind technologies to solve challenging problems in large markets globally. To learn more about our community of bold, passionate entrepreneurs, visit www.InnovationEndeavors.com.

Flextronics' Lab IX: Flextronics' Lab IX is creating the world's largest hardware ecosystem by bringing together startups, OEMs, and technology partners. Flextronics created Lab IX to help disruptive technology companies cross the chasm from prototype to production. Lab IX offers startups and entrepreneurs around the world the ultimate partnership that can help any hardware initiative become a leading hardware venture with the fastest time to market. Lab IX is the venture arm of Flextronics, a global leader in design, manufacturing, distribution, and aftermarket services. To learn more about Lab IX and Flextronics, visit www.labix.io.