There are successful AgTechs, but few are unicorns
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According to Chen (2023), when a startup has a valuation of over 1 billion dollars, this startup can be considered an “Unicorn”, meaning a highly profitable and successful venture. Despite the importance of optimizing agricultural processes while increasing sustainability, the number of highly successful AgTechs is low. For example, the Failory website, which specializes in analyzing various startups, lists 7 unicorn AgTechs in 2023, while it lists 193 unicorn Fintechs (startups related to the financial system). Additionally, according to the AgTech Garage (2022), AgTechs face a high mortality rate (like most startups do).
References:
AgTech Garage. Link: https://www.agtechgarage.com/
Chen, James. (2023). Unicorn: What It Means in Investing, With Examples. Link: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/u/unicorn.asp.
FAILORY. Top 7 AgTech Unicorn Companies in 2023. Link: https://www.failory.com/startups/agtech-unicorns.
FAILORY. Top 191 FinTech Unicorn Companies in 2023. Link: https://www.failory.com/startups/fintech-unicorns.
Avenues for Success and the Use of Maturity Models
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There are many methods to evaluate the shortcomings of a company and to analyze ways to increase its success. Of course, each company has unique features, and models must adapt to it, however, general characteristics of a successful company can be found in specialized literature.
The more successful a company becomes, the more it matures, which may be one of the causes why maturity models have been gaining popularity as a way to identify points of improvement and show companies how they can become more successful and overcome their shortcomings.
References:
Becker, J; Knackstedt, R; Pöppelbuß, D. I. J. 2009. Developing maturity models for IT management. Business & Information Systems Engineering, v. 1, n. 3, p. 213-222.
Cukier, D. and Kon, F. 2018. A maturity model for software startup ecosystems. Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 7, 14. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13731-018-0091-6
De Bruin, T., Freeze, R., Kaulkarni, U., Rosemann, M. 2005. Understanding the Main Phases of Developing a Maturity Assessment Model. Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS), (January), 8–19. https://doi.org/10.1108/14637151211225225
Santos-Neto, J. B. S. and Costa, A. P. C. S. 2019. Enterprise maturity models: a systematic literature review. Enterprise Information Systems, Volume 13, Issue 5, https://doi.org/10.1080/17517575.2019.1575986.