AgLaunch enables farmers to earn ownership stakes in startups by providing field trials, data and expertise—and it’s paying off.  AgLaunch Farmers LLC is announcing two new “Farmer Innovation Dividends” – the second and third exits in their portfolio, following their first exit about a year ago.  According to Pete Nelson, executive director of AgLaunch Initiative, this marks the first time in the world that a group of farmers have earned equity returns from their in-the-field contributions to startup development across multiple company exits. “Different groups like Cornell University have been studying us, and there’s no other group of farmers that we can find in the world that are organized in a way that takes equity like this with these steps and everything systematic in order to grow out companies,” Nelson says.

The Business Model

Farmers trade services, data, farm trials, and knowledge for equity in startups, which is organized as a pooled LLC where farmers get member units. Currently, there are 40 companies in the portfolio, so equity from all portfolio companies is pooled to spread risk.

“What we’ve been able to do over time is build a pool where farmers for those same services get member units in an LLC for providing those services, and then all the deals that get worked on are pooled to equity in that overall LLC. So you spread everybody’s risk,” Nelson says.

Last year, AgLaunch reviewed about 80 business plans, with farmers selecting just four offers. Those selected companies automatically gain access to farmers from Oregon to Iowa to the Mississippi Delta who help scale the technology.

Currently, 250+ farmers across 32 states are part of the Farm Innovation Network (FIN), learning about the model and potentially joining. Interested farmers can start by joining AgVentures Alliance, which vets participants before they enter the LLC.

What Makes This So Different

The AgLaunch mission is two-fold: include farmers in deal flow for their contributions, and get technology into farmers’ hands earlier in development to accelerate innovation and on-farm benefits.

“We’ve done assessments on how much venture capital has gone into these companies–just farmer-facing agtech companies–and It’s been as much as $40 billion has gone into venture investment,” Nelson says. “Maybe as much as 70% of that’s been spent on farmer acquisition as a customer, data, farm trial implementation. So our model is, in a systemic way, helping drive those costs down and make it better and easier to get companies into the field.”

What’s Next

With 40 companies currently in the portfolio and the model now proven across three exits, the team is bullish on future returns.

“These early examples are pretty modest examples, and it takes time to create a lot of durable value in any business,” says Spencer Stensrude, CEO of AgVentures Alliance. “Probably the most exciting things are still being actively built out right now. Hopefully, next time we’re talking about a really big outcome, where instead of $3,000 checks and $20,000 checks, the farmers are getting a lot bigger checks than that.”

He adds, “I think that the state of startups and agriculture, it’s never been more exciting than it is today.”

Timeline For AgLaunch Portfolio

  • 2016 – Initial business plan written; first on-farm trial with a company
  • 2021 – AgLaunch Farmers LLC officially started
  • May 2025 – First exit/distribution
  • June 2026 – Two additional exits

Special thanks to an excellent article by: Margy Eckelkamp, AgWeb Farm Journal, June 17, 2026