Best Food and Agriculture Companies in Richmond, United States
The 67 best Food and Agriculture companies in Richmond, United States in 2026, ranked by funding and momentum. Funding, investors, founders, valuation, tech stack and live signals. Top: Performance Food Group.
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.
Ranked: Best Food and Agriculture companies in Richmond
| # | Company | Disclosed funding | Last round | Stage | Founder | Founded | Tech stack | Patents & IP focus | Recent signals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Performance Food Group Distributor of food products | $350M | 53 mo ago | Public | George Holm CEO & President | 1885 | Apple iCloud MailQ4Zoho+16 | — | 4 job openings · 1 award |
| 2 | Nutiva Organic superfoods | $21M | 133 mo ago | Funding Raised | — | 1999 | Cart FunctionalityShopifySearchanise+33 | — | — |
| 3 | Health Warrior Brand of fitness snacks | $12M | 104 mo ago | Acquired | — | 2011 | — | — | — |
| 4 | Belle Isle Craft Spirits Developer and manufacturer of premium spirits | $10M | 17 mo ago | Series A | — | 2013 | ShopifyCart FunctionalityPlyr+35 | — | — |
| 5 | Aurapea Brand of plant based pea | $2M | 53 mo ago | Seed | Benjamin Pasternak CEO | 2020 | — | 4 patents Structured plant-based gelled fat analogues for meat-like texture in food products | — |
| 6 | OMY Gelato Brand of dairy-free spreads | $1M | 63 mo ago | Seed | — | 2017 | — | — | — |
| 7 | Virago Spirits Brand of rum | $625K | 53 mo ago | Seed | Barton Haneberg Co-Founder | 2016 | Cart FunctionalitySquarespace CommerceSquarespace+25 | — | — |
| 8 | Sugar Shack Donuts Handmade donuts, smashburgers, locally roasted coffee, and other treats offered by Sugar Shack Donuts | $250K | 120 mo ago | Seed | Ian Kelley Founder & CEO | 2013 | Cart FunctionalitySquarespace CommerceSquarespace+12 | — | — |
Top 11 Food and Agriculture companies in Richmond
#1
Series A · Richmond, Virginia · founded 2013 · 14 employees$10.2Mraised▾
Developer and manufacturer of premium spirits
- Dec 2024Conventional Debt$25K
- Sep 2024Series A$1.2M
- Apr 2023Series A$1.7M
- Dec 2020Series A$350K
#2
Public · Richmond, Virginia · founded 1885 · 35000 employees$350Mraised▾
Performance Food Group is a distributor of food products. Their business segments include performance foodservice, vistar, and PFG Customized. The company has operations worldwide. In 2022, the company recorded annual revenues of $56.29B and a net profit of $0.27B.
#3
Acquired · Richmond, Virginia · founded 2011 · 29 employees$11.7Mraised▾
Health Warrior is a brand of fitness snacks. Their flagship products include Chia Bars with chia seeds as ingredient and Chia Protein Bars that contains plant protein from chia, quinoa, oats, and peas. Their products are sold in offline retail outlets like Whole Foods Market, Sprouts, Target, Giant, Stop & Shop, Wegmans, Safeway, Albertsons, Earth Fare, Vitamin Cottage, Fairway, Market Basket, Giant Eagle, Hy-Vee or online on platforms like Amazon.com and through their own online platform.
- Oct 2017Series B$5M
- Aug 2014Series B$3.4M
- Apr 2014Seed$250K
- Sep 2013Seed$705K
#4
Funding Raised · Richmond, California · founded 1999 · 102 employees$21Mraised▾
Organic superfoods
- Apr 2015Conventional Debt$21M
#5
Seed · Richmond, Virginia · founded 2020 · 11 employees$1.5Mraised▾
Producer of food items intended to offer plant-based products. The company's platform produces plant-based, high-protein products, which are made of chickpeas and available in a variety of crumbles including chorizo, breakfast, Italian, and taco, enabling consumers with healthy and organic meat substitutes.
- Jan 2022Seed$1.5M
#6
Seed · Richmond, Virginia · founded 2017 · 3 employees$1.4Mraised▾
Producer of plant-based gelato products intended to serve vegans and lactose-intolerant people. The company's products are made from natural ingredients, and non-GMO plants which are free of artificial colors, and use carob gum, enabling consumers to purchase various flavors of gelatos at affordable prices.
- Mar 2021Conventional Debt$1M
- Nov 2019Seed$370K
#7
Seed · Richmond, Virginia · founded 2016 · 6 employees$625Kraised▾
Operator of a craft distillery intended to blend liquor and produce aged spirits using traditional production techniques. The company distills rum, fruit brandy, and herbal spirits on a vintage, direct-fire, Charentais-style alembic still, which adds layers of depth and complexity of flavor, enabling wine lovers to have a refreshing experience of time-honored aromatic liquor prepared with new-world creativity.
- Jan 2022Seed$50K
- Apr 2020Seed$575K
#8
Seed · Richmond, Virginia · founded 2013$250Kraised▾
Sugar Shack Donuts is a company that specializes in handmade donuts, smashburgers, locally roasted coffee, and other treats. They have multiple locations in Richmond, VA and offer catering services.
- Jun 2016Seed$250K
#9
Late Stage · Richmond, California · founded 1971 · 55 employees—raised▾
Provider of food logistic services
#10
Seed · Richmond, California · founded 2012—raised▾
Living Apothecary is a multi-category beverages brand. Offers products such as kefir water tea and cold pressed almonds milk. It claims that its products are gluten free, dairy free and do not contain preservatives, artificial flavors, and colors. Its products have different flavors such as classic, strawberry, cacao rose cashew, cacao mint cashew, and more. Sells its products through stores such as Whole Foods Market, Safeway, and more. Its products are sold in the US.
#11
Public · Richmond, Virginia · founded 1918 · 28000 employees—raised▾
Universal Corp is a producer and supplier of tobacco leaves. It processes and supplies cured-tobacco leaves. It is engaged in contract farming of tobacco with local farmers for tobacco production and procurement. It processes and supplies tobacco leaves across the world.
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 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.
- International Food Policy Research Institute25
- University of California, Davis22
- Cornell University22
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign17
- Agricultural & Applied Economics Association17
- Robot1→19
- Agriculture24→127
- Robot4→21
- Climate change2→17
- Agroforestry3→15
- Productivity2→13
- Agriculture35→83
- Food security7→25
- Productivity2→10
- Agricultural economics2→10
- Internet of Things1→8
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.
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, Koselka Harvey; annual filings 1→5.
- Microsoft7
- Vision Robotics5
- Koselka Harvey5
- Wallach BRET5
- IBM4
- X DEV3
- Gerrish Steven R3
- CROP One Holdings2
Common questions
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.