Radar · Food and Agriculture in Lexington
Best Food and Agriculture Companies in Lexington, United States
The 31 best Food and Agriculture companies in Lexington, United States in 2026, ranked by funding and momentum. Funding, investors, founders, valuation, tech stack and live signals. Top: Sword Performance.
By Rohit KhannaTrends & Stories
31companies tracked
$5.2Mdisclosed funding
0unicorns
4have raised
FLIAR INTELLIGENCE · FOOD AND AGRICULTURE × LEXINGTON
Our analysis of 175 Food and Agriculture companies
$22.9b in tracked funding; 93% of the stack-profiled cohort runs cloud-native; funding activity peaked in 2025.
175companies analysed
93%cloud-native stacks
2025funding peak (by rounds)
7unicorns
2015median founding year
Ranked: Best Food and Agriculture companies in Lexington
| # | Company | Disclosed funding | Last round | Stage | Founder | Founded | Tech stack | Recent signals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sword Performance Developer of supplements for health and wellness | $4M | 35 mo ago | Seed | Shawn Stasko Founder | 2013 | ShopifyAnimate.cssBootstrap+22 | — |
| 2 | RedLeaf Manufacturer of spices & seasonings | $1M | 50 mo ago | Seed | Jordan Wood CEO | 2015 | — | — |
| 3 | Mulligans Run Farm Provider of horses, including stallions, mares, foals, and geldings | — | 205 mo ago | Funding Raised | — | 2003 | — | — |
| 4 | Logan’s Roadhouse Chain of limited service restaurant offering chicken | — | 244 mo ago | Acquired | Grant Mueller Founder | 1991 | Cart FunctionalityWordPressApple iCloud Mail+34 | — |
| 5 | A and W Restaurants Chain of limited service restaurant offering burgers | — | — | Funding Raised | Kevin Bazner Chairman & CEO | 1998 | SkolengoCart FunctionalityNode.js+26 | — |
| 6 | Arcadium Bar and arcade offering craft beer drafts and bourbon selection | — | — | Unfunded | — | 2012 | — | — |
| 7 | Bella Notte Restaurant Group We are a locally-owned original in Lexington, Kentucky. | — | — | — | — | 1996 | WordPressMySQLPHP+11 | — |
| 8 | Bluegrass Hospitality Operator of multiple restaurant concepts | — | — | Unfunded | — | 1998 | Cart FunctionalityWordPressPlesk+30 | — |
Top 4 Food and Agriculture companies in Lexington
#1
Seed · Lexington, Kentucky · founded 2013 · 11 employees$3.7Mraised▾
Seed · Lexington, Kentucky · founded 2013 · 11 employees
Developer of supplements for health and wellness. The products developed are Sword is an electrolyte for hydration, Shield is an electrolyte beverage, Energy is a coffee-based dissolving chewable tablet, and Sword performance is a sports drink.
LinkedIn Pulse recent public activity · Jul 2026
Audience: 682 LinkedIn followers
Activity: 1 partnerships (incl. LineDrive) announced in 12 mo
Funding rounds
- Nov 2023Conventional Debt$320K
- Jun 2022Seed$1.6M
- Jun 2020Seed$2.1M
Founders & team
Investors
Keyhorse Capital, Mammoth View
Tech stack
Animate.CssApple PayBootstrapCloudflareCore-JsFacebook Pixel
#2
Seed · Lexington, Kentucky · founded 2015 · 10 employees$1.5Mraised▾
Seed · Lexington, Kentucky · founded 2015 · 10 employees
Manufacturer of spices & seasonings
LinkedIn Pulse recent public activity · Jul 2026
Audience: 717 LinkedIn followers
Funding rounds
- Aug 2022Seed$485K
- Nov 2019Seed$750K
- Apr 2017Grant (prize money)$1.4M
- Jun 2016Seed$250K
Founders & team
Investors
America’s Seed Fund, Kyagr, HBS Alumni Angels Chicago, Keyhorse Capital
#3
Funding Raised · Lexington, South Carolina · founded 2003 · 5 employees—raised▾
Funding Raised · Lexington, South Carolina · founded 2003 · 5 employees
Provider of horses, including stallions, mares, foals, and geldings. The company offers horses for sale and welcomes international inquiries. It also provides information and media related to its horses.
Funding rounds
- Sep 2009Grant (prize money)—
Investors
United States Department of Agriculture
Tech stack
Apache Http Server
#4
Acquired · Lexington, Kentucky · founded 1991 · 4012 employees—raised▾
Acquired · Lexington, Kentucky · founded 1991 · 4012 employees
Chain of limited service restaurant offering chicken
LinkedIn Pulse recent public activity · Jul 2026
Audience: 16k LinkedIn followers — 35.5% of this cohort's audience
Funding rounds
- 2006PE—
Founders & team
Investors
Rosser Capital Partners, Westhook Capital, Spanos Barber Jesse, BRS
Tech stack
AccessibeAdobe Audience ManagerAdrollAdroll Cmp SystemApache TomcatApple Icloud Mail
Funding & investor landscape
$5.2Mtotal disclosed funding
2companies funded
8disclosed rounds
0rounds last 90 days
Most active investors
Notable founders
Shawn Stasko
Founder · Sword Performance
Darin Dillow
CEO · Sword Performance
Jordan Wood
CEO · RedLeaf
Grant Mueller
Founder · Logan’s Roadhouse
Hazem Ouf
CEO · Logan’s Roadhouse
Prism market signals · United States · country-scoped Prism corpus, 2,042,753 docs
Market landscape — 10 sub-themes by coverage
Share of Food and Agriculture coverage by sub-theme.
Regulatory-risk over time rising
Funding & growth over time
funding rising · growth rising
RESEARCH SIGNALS · United States
How research on Agritech is moving in the United States
A read on the academic research around Agritech — which themes are gaining ground, the institutions and researchers driving them, and how the tone is shifting. Based on 652 United States-affiliated papers.
research sentiment over time
201020192026
enthusiastic · positive · guarded tone
Tone is overwhelmingly optimistic and intensifying — the enthusiastic (strongly-positive) share moved 24% → 62% across 2010–2026.
top research entities
- International Food Policy Research Institute25
- University of California, Davis22
- Cornell University22
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign17
- Agricultural & Applied Economics Association17
leading researchers
Saraju P. Mohanty · Bouali Et-taibi · Mohamed Riduan Abid · H.S. Jat · Andrea Cattaneo · Leslie Lipper · El‐Mahjoub Boufounas · Driss Benhaddou
▲
Breakthroughs103 · 16%
▲ 2%→22% share
▲11.0× share momentum2 median citations92% since 2021mostly methods-led
Breakthroughs are rising (2%→22% of field), led by Robot.
rising sub-themes (early→recent)
- Robot1→19
Newly emergingAgriculture 0→51 · Precision agriculture 0→17 · Cloud computing 0→11
Landmark The Robotanist: A ground-based agricultural robot for high-throughput crop phenotyping · 151 cites
◆
Advancements253 · 39%
▲ 32%→42% share
▲1.3× share momentum3 median citations71% since 2021mostly empirical
Advancements are rising (32%→42% of field), led by Agriculture.
rising sub-themes (early→recent)
- Agriculture24→127
- Robot4→21
- Climate change2→17
- Agroforestry3→15
- Productivity2→13
Newly emergingInternet of Things 0→18 · Agricultural engineering 0→15 · Precision agriculture 0→13
Landmark Responses of soil carbon sequestration to climate‐smart agriculture practices: A meta‐analysis · 470 cites
▼
Concerns186 · 29%
▼ 39%→25% share
▼0.6× share momentum6 median citations57% since 2021mostly empirical
Concerns are cooling (39%→25% of field), led by Agriculture.
rising sub-themes (early→recent)
- Agriculture35→83
- Food security7→25
- Productivity2→10
- Agricultural economics2→10
- Internet of Things1→8
Newly emergingAgroforestry 0→10 · Sustainability 0→9 · Agricultural science 0→7
Landmark Climate-smart agriculture: what is it good for? · 334 cites
RESEARCH HOTSPOTS · United States
Where agritech is researched across United States
Location clusters by institution affiliation — each city's volume, stance tone, and a quick read on its hot topic, what's advancing, the opening opportunity, and the main concern.
New York23 · +0.10
SF Bay Area15 · +0.03
Ann Arbor7 · +0.01
Boston6 · +0.60
Atlanta6 · +0.75
PATENT SIGNAL · United States
Who's filing agritech patents in the United States
United States agritech patent filing is accelerating — 24 filings from 35 assignees (2016–2025), led by Microsoft, Vision Robotics, Wallach BRET; annual filings 1→5.
24 filings35 assigneespeak 5/yr2016–2025
filing momentum (YoY 2016–2025)
top patent filers
- Microsoft7
- Vision Robotics5
- Wallach BRET5
- Koselka Harvey5
- IBM4
- X DEV3
- Gerrish Steven R3
- Akhtar Sabrina2
Common questions
How many Food and Agriculture companies are there in Lexington, United States?
Radar tracks 31 indexable Food and Agriculture companies headquartered in Lexington, United States that meet our profile-completeness bar.
What is the total funding raised by Food and Agriculture companies in Lexington, United States?
The Food and Agriculture companies in Lexington, United States on this list have raised a combined $5.2M in disclosed equity funding across 2 funded companies.
Which is the highest-funded Food and Agriculture company in Lexington, United States?
Sword Performance is the highest-funded Food and Agriculture company in Lexington, United States, with $3.7M in disclosed equity funding.
How many Food and Agriculture companies in Lexington, United States are funded?
2 of the 31 Food and Agriculture companies in Lexington, United States on this list have disclosed at least one equity funding round.
How many Food and Agriculture unicorns are there in Lexington, United States?
None of the Food and Agriculture companies in Lexington, United States on this list currently has a disclosed valuation of $1B or more.
Who are the top investors in Lexington, United States Food and Agriculture companies?
The most active investors in Lexington, United States Food and Agriculture companies on this list include Keyhorse Capital, America’s Seed Fund, BRS, Clydesdale Ventures, Dark Knight Capital Ventures.
Rohit KhannaTrends & Stories
Rohit lives in the feed. He covers what's moving right now — the funding rounds, launches and shifts breaking across the trade press — and ties them back to where the sector is heading.