Lewis & Clark AgriFood Research
Investment Thesis
Lewis & Clark AgriFood (operating today under the umbrella brand Lewis & Clark Partners) is a St. Louis-based growth equity investment firm founded in 2016 by David Taiclet and Tom Hillman. The firm's stated mission is "Growth Capital for The Next AgriFood System" — backing founders reshaping how the world eats, lives, and sustains itself. The firm positions itself as an active, operator-minded partner rather than a passive capital source, combining flexible growth capital with board-level involvement, strategic guidance, and access to an extensive network of agriculture and food industry operators. Their pitch to founders centers on disciplined fundamentals paired with forward-looking innovation, targeting large, attractive markets with clear paths to profitability.
Stage Focus
The firm invests across two overlapping stages: venture-stage companies (Series A through C) that have established product-market fit, and growth-stage, generally profitable companies accelerating toward category leadership. They are not a seed or pre-seed investor; the earliest checks observed in their portfolio (e.g., Series A for Matterworks) still assume a working product and initial commercial traction.
Check Size
Initial investments typically range from $2 million to $10 million, with meaningful capital reserved for follow-on rounds in existing portfolio companies — consistent with the firm's emphasis on being a long-term, active partner through multiple financing stages.
Lead Tendency
Lewis & Clark AgriFood frequently leads or co-leads rounds. Public announcements show them leading investments (e.g., the Ranchbot Series B, the AgroSpheres Series B, the NFW Series B) as well as participating alongside other agtech- and climate-focused funds (e.g., P2 Science's May 2026 round led by Sofinnova Partners).
Recent Activity
The firm has been actively deploying through at least two vehicles: a growth-equity fund (Fund II closed at $169M in 2021, with Fund III launching in 2025) and a Rural Business Investment Company (RBIC) vehicle. Its AgriFood growth-equity strategy closed at $257M combined across the AgriFood Fund II and RBIC Fund II. Recent activity includes leading Ranchbot's $15M+ Series B in August 2026 (a livestock water-monitoring hardware/software company establishing a new U.S. holding company in Fort Worth, TX), participating in P2 Science's $23M round in May 2026 to expand its green chemistry platform, and backing Matterworks' Series A in June 2025 for AI-driven predictive biology.
Portfolio Highlights
The portfolio spans agtech, ag-biotech, food technology, and sustainable materials. Notable companies include Arzeda (protein design for pharma/industrial chemicals, multiple funding rounds including a $38M round in 2024), AgroSpheres (encapsulated biopesticides, $22M Series B), Brightseed (AI-driven bioactive compound discovery via its "Forager" platform), Bushel (grain-trading and farm-management software powering 50%+ of U.S. grain origination), Tortuga AgTech (agricultural robotics, named 2024 Robot of the Year), BlueNalu (cell-cultured seafood), GreenLight Biosciences (RNA-based agricultural and health products, went public on Nasdaq under GRNA), Gencove (low-pass whole genome sequencing), Plastomics (biotech crop traits), BinSentry (IoT feed-inventory monitoring for livestock producers), Stony Creek Colors (plant-based indigo dye, replacing synthetic petroleum-based dye in denim), Beta Hatch (insect protein/animal feed), SinnovaTek (specialty food ingredients), NFW (naturally circular, plant-based materials, $85M Series B), and Ranchbot (satellite-connected livestock water monitoring). The firm has made over 40 investments to date with multiple exits.
Team
- David Taiclet — General Partner & Managing Director; co-founded the firm in 2016.
- Tom Hillman — Founding Partner of Lewis & Clark AgriFood and Founding General Partner of sister firm Lewis & Clark Ventures; co-founded the firm in 2016.
- Larry Page — Managing Director.
- Tim Hassler — Managing Director.
- Meg Lane — Chief Financial Officer & Chief Compliance Officer.
- Chuck Warta — Operating Partner, added in June 2022; brought over 30 years of growth and acquisition experience from Cargill Animal Health.
Decision Process
The firm operates as a multi-partner investment team (several Managing Directors plus a dedicated investment team of VPs and analysts) rather than a solo-GP structure, consistent with a partnership-style decision process. They describe themselves as an "active and supportive partner," typically taking board seats and providing operational and strategic support post-investment.
Founder Preferences
Public materials emphasize partnering with "exceptional teams" that combine strong unit economics with differentiated technology — favoring founders solving structural problems in food and agriculture (supply chain inefficiency, sustainability, productivity) over point-solution consumer plays. Several portfolio companies are led by scientist-founders or teams with deep agriculture/food-industry operating backgrounds.
Geographic Focus
The firm states a global reach but a targeted focus on North America and rural America — consistent with a portfolio concentrated in U.S. agtech and food-tech companies (Missouri, North Carolina, Texas, North Dakota, Washington, and other agriculture-heavy regions), plus the RBIC vehicle's explicit rural-investment mandate.
Firm Structure Note
Lewis & Clark AgriFood's original domain (lewisandclarkagrifood.com) redirects permanently (301) to lewisandclarkpartners.com, the umbrella site for Lewis & Clark Partners, which houses both the AgriFood growth-equity strategy and the earlier-stage Lewis & Clark Ventures strategy. Headquarters: 120 South Central Avenue, Suite 1000, St. Louis, MO 63105.