Public and private support of the AgriTech : what rationale for what innovation pathway ? A multiple case study in France and Chile

Both public and private actors are increasingly using a diversity of support instruments to foster AgriTech innovation, including a growing interest in the agrifood sector from venture capital and private equity (Lajoie-O'Malley et al., 2020; Sippel and Dolinga, 2023). This support is not only legitimized by the classic rationale of the effect of innovation on economic efficiency and the need for support due to uncertain returns on investment - but also by the socio-ecological effects that these technological developments would enable (Martin and Schnebelin, 2024). Despite this evolution and the growing influence of private funding (Glenna et al., 2015), the AgriTech ecosystems, and their impact on the agricultural innovation system, remain poorly studied (Klerkx and Villalobos, 2024). Who supports AgTech development, what rationales underpin support instruments and how hybrid public and private arrangements configure who and what is supported ? At the crossroad of literature on the agricultural innovation system and entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystems, our research aims to decipher how the development of private venture capital, alongside new innovation support rationales, shape innovation pathways in the agrifood sector. To address these aims, we present a comparative study of AgriTech innovation ecosystems in France and Chile. While these two countries offer different institutional context, they are both very dynamic in terms of AgriTech development. Through an analysis of the CrunchBase database and interviews with key public and private stakeholders of AgriTech innovation ecosystems, we describe the landscape of AgriTech support services. We characterize these instruments according to their providers, beneficiaries and means (Audretsch et al., 2020), as well as their objectives and rationales (Kerr et al., 2017; Laranja et al., 2008). The results highlight the multi-level, multi-actor and multi-instrument ecosystem of innovation support instruments for AgTech in France and Chile. We observe a strong entanglement of public and private support. Most instruments provide a diversity of resources such as funds, knowledge, network, legal expertise…. While they incorporate "mission-oriented" dimensions, they have few processes to evaluate, support and foster these missions. Despite similarities, the instruments refer to different rationales and objectives. These results will enable us to discuss the evolution of agricultural innovation policies within a neoliberal context and a regime of entrepreneurial innovation (« the Silicon Valley model of innovation »).