iGrow News

Quinbrook has closed its second UK-focused Renewables Impact Fund at GBP 587 million, above its GBP 500 million target.\n\nThe fund, QRIF II, was raised exclusively from institutional investors in the UK and Ireland and focuses on infrastructure for the energy and digital transitions.\n\nIt is Quinbrook's fifth managed fund and builds on its inaugural Renewables Impact Fund, which closed in 2023.\n\n

Chipotle Mexican Grill's venture fund Cultivate Next has invested in six agriculture and food tech companies: Benchmark Labs, IMIO, Clean Crop Technologies, Athian, SIMPLi, and PopID.\n\nEach company addresses a different part of the food supply chain, from how crops are grown and sourced to how products are tracked and experienced in restaurants.\n\nUpdates on the fund's portfolio are published at http://cultivatenext.vc.nn

KEPPT has engaged J.P. Morgan to arrange development financing for a $1.6 billion urea plant in Basra, Iraq.

The plant will be Iraq's second urea facility, with planned annual production capacity of 1.15 million tonnes.

Construction is scheduled to begin in 2027, with operations expected to start in 2030 following a front-end engineering design study by KBR Inc.

June was a mixed month for agtech: a record number of M&A deals, but funding rounds that raised less money overall than May's smaller batch.

This week's editorial breaks down:
12 M&A transactions — the highest monthly count in 18 months
20 funding rounds totaling $154.98M, down from $201.05M in May
AI agents behind 5 of June's 23 product launches, up from 2 in May

Full analysis: https://network.igrownews.com/p/agtech-trends-june-2026

Lloyds Banking Group has partnered with regenerative agriculture company Wildfarmed to launch the Food & Nature Resilience Fund.

The fund is designed to pool capital from banks, utilities and insurers so UK farmers can be paid for verified environmental gains.

Khadija Ali, Group Director of Sustainability and Responsible Business at Lloyds Banking Group, announced the fund in a LinkedIn post.

BASF Agricultural Solutions has launched Melyra Fungicide and Inveris Gold Insecticide in India.

Melyra is a broad-spectrum fungicide built on BASF's Revysol Active isopropanol azole molecule, designed to help farmers manage crop diseases.

The product is co-formulated with pyraclostrobin and is suitable for crops including cotton, groundnut, soybean, chilli and tomato.