Best Food and Agriculture Companies in New Zealand
The 363 best Food and Agriculture companies in New Zealand in 2026, ranked by funding and momentum. Funding, investors, founders, valuation, tech stack and live signals. Top: Mataura Valley Milk.
Ranked by disclosed equity funding and recent momentum, the Food and Agriculture companies in New Zealand tracked here represent $443M in total disclosed capital across 363 ventures. No unicorns yet. But the numbers tell a serious story: Mataura Valley Milk leads all filers at $142M raised, Oritain follows at $115M, and those two alone account for more than half the sector's disclosed pool. That kind of concentration is worth noting before you draw conclusions about the broader market. The sector's underlying growth is steady, with a CAGR around 5.5% driven by economic developments and precision tools that monitor soil conditions, and median install growth across food and agtech apps is running at roughly +20% year-on-year across 504 tracked apps globally.
So what's actually moving? Coverage is flat, but the active themes are practical: food rescue, composting infrastructure, youth agriculture programs, agricultural extension outreach. I'd argue those trends are shaping where the smarter capital flows next, and key practices for food and agriculture investing suggest operator fundamentals matter more than category heat right now. Icehouse Ventures, New Zealand Growth Capital Partners, and Callaghan Innovation anchor the investor side. Smaller raises like Invivo Wines at $6M and Croptide at $4M show you don't need Mataura-scale funding to stay active in this market.
- prnewswire.com
Our analysis of 653 Food and Agriculture companies
$71.7b in tracked funding; 82% of the stack-profiled cohort runs cloud-native; funding activity peaked in 2025.
Ranked: Best Food and Agriculture companies in New Zealand
| # | Company | Disclosed funding | Last round | Employees | Founder | Tech stack | Market signals (1y) | Patents & IP focus | Recent signals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mataura Valley Milk Brand of milk | $142M | 119 mo ago | 70 | Bernard May CEO | WordPressPleskMySQL+31 | 5 signals M&A · Acquisition | — | — |
| 2 | Oritain Provider of food safety testing services | $115M | 35 mo ago | 180 | Grant Cochrane Co-CEO | SilverstripeApple iCloud MailMicrosoft 365+29 | 5 signals Leadership | 21 patents Chemical separation of synthetic fibers from mixed textiles and silicon material source verification | 2 partnerships · 1 expansion · 1 award |
| 3 | DFNZ Company focused on dairy cattle farming | $114M | 114 mo ago | — | Craig McBeth CEO | WordPressMySQLPHP+11 | — | — | — |
| 4 | The a2 Milk Company Producer of A2 protein-only dairy products | $26M | 128 mo ago | 231 | MJ McCoy Founder | Kontent.aiNode.jsMUI+19 | 7 signals ▲600% Earnings · Acquisition · Lawsuit | 198 patents Patents concentrated in health & consumer products | 1 launch |
| 5 | Cooks Global Foods Manufacturer & supplier of coffees | $9M | 130 mo ago | — | John Deeks Director | — | — | — | — |
| 6 | Miruku Developer of dairy foods and ingredients | $7M | 27 mo ago | 1 | Harjinder Singh Co-Founder | WixSentryBootstrap+11 | — | 4 patents Engineered dairy proteins and production methods for enhanced food ingredient applications. | — |
| 7 | Darling Group Provider of food retailer services | $7M | 58 mo ago | 12 | — | WordPressMySQLRedis+27 | — | — | 1 job opening |
| 8 | Invivo Wines Brand of wine | $6M | 10 mo ago | 13 | — | Cart FunctionalityWooCommerceWordPress+30 | — | — | — |
| 9 | Croptide Croptide is a company that delivers real time plant intelligence to farmers, enabling them to make smarter… | $4M | 30 mo ago | 7 | Hamish Penny Co-Founder & CEO | — | — | 7 patents Electrochemical sensor technology for detecting specific chemical analytes | — |
| 10 | Moa Brewing Multi-category alcoholic beverage company | $3M | 117 mo ago | — | Josh Scott Founder | Cart FunctionalityShopifyAnimate.css+25 | — | — | — |
| 11 | East Imperial Brand of gin | $2M | 28 mo ago | 7 | Kevin Law Founder | — | — | — | — |
| 12 | ParrotDog Beer brand | $1M | 118 mo ago | 22 | Paul Watson Co-Founder & CEO | Cart FunctionalityShopifyPlyr+25 | — | — | — |
| 13 | Behemoth Brewing Brand of beers | $1M | 66 mo ago | 19 | Reginald Field Co-Founder | Cart FunctionalityShopifyTailwind CSS+30 | — | — | — |
| 14 | Zeffer Cider Ciders processing company | $1M | 111 mo ago | 12 | Joshua Townsend CEO | ShopifyTailwind CSSlit-html+15 | — | — | — |
| 15 | Metrovate Biotechnology company focused on improving global health and sustainability through advanced research | $1M | 25 mo ago | — | Nikolai Macnee Founder | — | — | — | — |
| 16 | NewFish Restaurant serving seafood | $816K | 27 mo ago | 7 | Vaughan Mabee Co-Founder | — | — | — | 1 job opening · 1 launch |
| 17 | Synthase Biotech Provider of preparatory education services for primary, secondary, and higher education | $800K | 114 mo ago | 6 | Mark Backhaus Co-Founder & Managing Director | — | — | 7 patents Improving human fertility via engineered enzymes and reproductive biotech formulations. | — |
| 18 | Fonterra Brand of dairy products | $504K | 122 mo ago | 19,608 | Miles Hurrell CEO | Adobe Experience ManagerApple iCloud MailMicrosoft 365+21 | 93 signals ▲19% Acquisition · Earnings · Regulatory | 25 patents Dairy-derived high‑protein food formulations and gout therapeutics using whey components | 1 launch · 1 partnership |
| 19 | Apiculture New Zealand Pollination services to honeybees | $225K | 49 mo ago | — | Karin Kos CEO | WordPressPleskMySQL+15 | — | — | — |
| 20 | FoodHQ Provides agricultural services to the food industry | $100K | 91 mo ago | — | Abby Thompson CEO | — | — | — | — |
Top 12 Food and Agriculture companies in New Zealand
#1
Series A · Auckland, Auckland · founded 2008 · 13 employees$5.6Mraised▾
Brand of wine
- Aug 2025Series A—
- Aug 2019Series A$3.6M
- 2015Seed$2M
#2
Series C · Dunedin, Otago · founded 2008 · 180 employees$115.3Mraised▾
Provider of food safety testing services
- Jul 2023Series C$57M
- Oct 2022Series A$58M
- Dec 2019Seed$327.4K
#3
Seed · Palmerston North, Manawatu Wanganui · founded 2020 · 1 employees$7.4Mraised▾
Developer of dairy foods and ingredients
- Feb 2024Seed$5M
- Mar 2022Seed$2.4M
#4
Seed · Napier, Hawke s Bay · founded 2019 · 7 employees$3.6Mraised▾
Croptide is a company that specializes in delivering real-time plant intelligence to farmers. They have developed a novel sensor that provides precise readings from the plant stem, enabling growers to make smarter and more effective growing decisions. Their mission is to support improvements in yield and quality outcomes while reducing inputs such as water and fertilizer.
- Dec 2023Seed$2.6M
- Dec 2021Seed$1M
#5
Deadpooled · Auckland, Auckland · founded 2012 · 7 employees$2.3Mraised▾
Brand of gin
- Jan 2024Post IPO$412.8K
- Aug 2023Post IPO$1.9M
#6
Acquired · Southland · founded 2016 · 70 employees$142.3Mraised▾
Brand of milk
- Jul 2016PE$142.3M
#7
Series C · Auckland, Auckland · founded 2014$113.7Mraised▾
Company focused on dairy cattle farming. It also focused on milk production.
- Dec 2016Series C$85M
- Dec 2016Conventional Debt—
- Dec 2015Series B$28.7M
#8
Seed · Auckland, Auckland · founded 2022$1Mraised▾
Biotechnology company committed to improving global health and sustainability through advanced research, developing biostimulants that change the way plants grow. They focus on developing biologics for improved economics for growers.
- May 2024Seed$1M
#9
Seed · Auckland, Auckland · founded 2020 · 7 employees$816Kraised▾
Restaurant serving seafood
- Mar 2024Seed—
- May 2022Seed$816K
#10
Public · Auckland, Auckland · founded 2000 · 231 employees$26.5Mraised▾
Producer of A2 protein-only dairy products. This company sources milk from cows selected to produce only the A2 beta-casein protein, omitting the A1 protein found in conventional milk. The resulting products are marketed to consumers who may experience digestive discomfort from A1 protein. The company operates across multiple markets, offering various dairy products. Its business model centers on the production and distribution of this specialized dairy line.
- Oct 2015Post IPO$26.5M
#11
Series A · Katikati, Bay Of Plenty · founded 2015 · 12 employees$7Mraised▾
Provider of food retailer services
- Aug 2021Series A$7M
#12
Acquired · Auckland, Auckland · founded 2013$9Mraised▾
Manufacturer & supplier of coffees
- Aug 2015Post IPO$9M
Funding & investor landscape
Notable founders
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
How research on Agritech is moving in New Zealand
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 43 New Zealand-affiliated papers.
- Massey University15
- AgResearch5
- Victoria University of Wellington5
- Lincoln University4
- Auckland University of Technology3
- Modular design1
- Reuse1
- Robotics1
- Sustainability1
- Robot1
- Agriculture1→4
- Pasture1→4
- Agriculture11
- Robotics6
- Field (mathematics)6
- Robot5
- Context (archaeology)4
Where agritech is researched across New Zealand
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.
Common questions
Riya reads income statements for fun. She covers the real money in a sector — revenue, growth, who actually earns — and never met a vague claim she didn't want a number for.