Agriculture Technology Investing and the Fourth Revolution - Episode 226 w/ Chris Rawley

Agricultural technology is undergoing what Chris Rawley calls a fourth revolution, and he has spent a decade funding the companies behind it. Chris is the founder and CEO of Harvest Returns, a platform that raises capital for farms and agribusinesses. He joins Alternative Investing Advantage host Alex Perny to explain what precision tools, robotics, and biologics are actually solving, and where an investor can take a position. Key Points: \- Agriculture is in its fourth technology revolution. Steam tractors, then synthetic chemicals, then GPS, and now precision tools and robotics. \- The farm credit system barely fits specialty crops or livestock. Chris says it has hardly changed in six decades. Adoption is the bottleneck, not invention. Chris estimates a ten-year lead time and calls ranchers three times more conservative. Robots now weed by machine vision. Some yank the weed, others zap it with a laser, and others kill it with steam. Financing risk worries him most. Early rounds are raised on a promise and later rounds on performance, so stalled companies run out of cash. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction: technology in agriculture investing 01:38 How Chris Rawley started Harvest Returns 03:10 The four revolutions in agricultural technology 10:01 Why the farm credit system leaves growers behind 14:39 Cash flow deals versus early-stage growth 17:17 Precision agriculture, Starlink, and slow adoption 25:53 Consumer demand and the margins farmers live on 29:40 Cattle technology and the cost of beef 33:41 Robots that pull, zap, and steam weeds 37:12 How Harvest Returns finds and structures deals 43:13 The number one risk in early-stage agriculture technology 46:14 Where Chris is bullish and where he is not 49:07 How to connect with Chris Rawley Subscribe to our YouTube channel and join our growing community for new videos every week. If you are interested in being a podcast guest speaker or have questions, contact us at Podcast@AdvantaIRA.com. Learn more about our guest, Chris Rawley: https://www.harvestreturns.com/ Learn more about Advanta IRA: https://www.AdvantaIRA.com/ https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/advanta-ira https://www.linkedin.com/company/Advanta-IRA/ https://twitter.com/AdvantaIRA https://www.facebook.com/AdvantaIRA/ https://www.instagram.com/AdvantaIRA/ #AgTech #SelfDirectedIRA #AgricultureInvesting #AlternativeInvestments #PrecisionAgriculture