Archives of Current Research International

Agribusiness is being reorganised around new constellations of technology developers, capital providers and intermediary organisations. Since the early 2010s, start-ups offering digital, automated, biological and controlled-environment technologies have entered a sector long dominated by large input, machinery, trading and food corporations, and their entry has been financed to a considerable extent by venture capital. Claims that these agritech ecosystems will disrupt incumbents, democratise innovation and accelerate sustainable transitions remain contested, and existing reviews have generally treated digital technologies, finance, corporate power and innovation intermediation as separate literatures. This critical narrative review integrates these strands. Peer-reviewed literature and institutional reports published from 2010 onwards were identified through multidisciplinary and economics-specific scholarly databases, institutional repositories and citation chasing, and were appraised for relevance, methodological transparency and empirical grounding. The synthesis is organised around four actor groups and the relations between them. The evidence indicates that most agritech start-ups complement, rather than displace, incumbent technological packages, and that their prospects depend heavily on access to incumbent distribution channels, public research infrastructure and patient forms of capital. Large agribusiness firms have consolidated through mergers and have extended their reach through data platforms, corporate venturing and acquisitions, which raises concerns about lock-in and the appropriation of farm data. Conventional venture finance fits poorly with biological production cycles, asset-heavy business models and fragmented farm markets, and the investment contraction observed after the early 2020s exposed the speculative character of some valuations. Intermediaries such as accelerators, innovation hubs, living labs and brokers can bridge actors, but rigorous evaluations of their effects are scarce. Evidence on farm-level, environmental and distributional outcomes is thin and geographically uneven, with smallholders and low-income regions under-represented. The review proposes a conceptual framework linking ecosystem structure, financing logics and governance arrangements to innovation outcomes, and identifies priorities for longitudinal, comparative and outcome-oriented research. A measured conclusion is that agritech ecosystems are reshaping agribusiness incrementally and unevenly, and that their contribution to sustainable and inclusive food systems depends on public governance as much as on entrepreneurial dynamism.