SFTW Convo with Mark Brooks, ex-CVC at FMC
Welcome to another edition of SFTW Convos!
This week’s conversation features Mark Brooks, ex-Managing Director of FMC’s Corporate Venture Capital arm. I had the privilege to sit down with him and have a conversation about his experience being an entrepreneur, and a corporate VC.
Mark is one of the few CVCs with experience in multiple industries (accounting and agritech), and multiple CVC funds (Syngenta and FMC).
Given the current funding and investment situation in Agrifood, this is a good conversation to read through for entrepreneurs, investors, and agribusinesses.
Summary of the Conversation
In this conversation, Mark Brooks shares his unique journey from climate science to corporate venture capital in agriculture. He discusses the evolution of corporate venture capital (CVC) in the ag industry, the characteristics that drive corporations to establish CVC entities, and the challenges they face in navigating innovation.
Mark emphasizes the importance of strategic thinking in CVC investments, the need for innovation in agriculture, and the misalignment of traditional VC models with the realities of ag-tech.
He also explores various funding models and the considerations for investing in ag-tech innovations. In this conversation, Mark Brooks discusses the dynamics of corporate venture capital in the agricultural technology sector, emphasizing the importance of partnerships between startups and major corporations.
He highlights the challenges faced by AgTech investors, the role of non-AgTech investors, and offers advice for entrepreneurs looking to innovate in this space. The discussion also explores the future of agriculture, including the impact of artificial intelligence and the need for broader thinking about the role of agriculture in various industries.
Mark Brooks (ex-VC at FMC) (Artwork by EI). Original picture provided by Mark Brooks
Mark Brooks background
Rhishi Pethe (RP): Let's give our readers a little taste of your background and how you came to your last role of being a corporate VC at FMC.
Mark Brooks (MB): My background has taken some curvy turns, and to some extent, I’m still figuring out what I want to do when I grow up. I started my career as a climate scientist after studying meteorology at university. Upon graduation, I spent about 10 years at North Carolina State University in a non-teaching role, conducting research on weather and climate at their intersection with agriculture, energy, transportation, and various other industries.
After a decade in academia, I realized I didn’t enjoy it. Writing grants, proposals, and peer-reviewed papers didn’t appeal to me. Instead, I felt drawn to building and creating—turning science into something practical and useful for people. So, I left.
I launched an AgTech company with a co-founder before AgTech had even become a defined category. We built a decision support platform for specialty crop growers in the U.S., helping them manage risks from weather events.
Through that experience, I learned a lot about entrepreneurship and AgTech. When I tried raising money from venture capitalists, nobody cared—AgTech wasn’t even on their radar. Without funding, we couldn’t scale, so I pivoted into corporate strategy.
That path led me to the AICPA, known as CIMA in the UK—the world’s largest association for accounting professionals. I like to think of it as the Vatican for finance and accounting. There, I led corporate strategy and innovation, designing, architecting, and launching a corporate venture program focused on pre-seed and seed-stage startups that were reshaping the future of accounting and finance. Over three or four years, I led investments in about a dozen companies.
But I wanted to return to science and agriculture—my roots. That’s when I found an incredible opportunity at Syngenta Ventures, where I joined the team as an investor. Over the next few years, I made several investments and sat on the boards of multiple companies.
Then, I got a call about an incredible opportunity to lead FMC Ventures. Running a corporate venture capital group had always been a goal of mine—driving innovation by allocating capital where it matters. This role has been an absolute blast, easily the best job I’ve ever had.
What is the need for Corporate Venture Capital?
RP: You moved from science to accounting—widely stereotyped as the most boring field—and yet, you set up a corporate venture fund there. I looked into which agricultural companies have established corporate VC funds, and only a handful have done so.
What factors drive a corporation to decide, we need to launch a corporate VC entity?