Rachel Resek, head of US venture investment at Ki Tua Fund, is one of our top 50 Emerging Leaders in corporate venturing for 2026.
Rachel Resek is a seasoned investor in the food and agtech sector, who is calling for a shake-up in the way corporates invest in the industry. She says the sector has been blighted by overvaluations and startup failures.
Resek was a principal at Cargill Ventures, the CVC arm of the US food conglomerate, and an investor at Leaps by Bayer, the German pharmaceutical and biotech company’s corporate venture arm, before she joined the Ki Tua Fund, the investment arm of New Zealand dairy cooperative Fonterra, as head of US venture investments, in 2024.
Headhunted by Fonterra to join the ventures arm, she was drawn to the group because of its unique structure as compared with other CVCs. Ki Tua is a separate legal entity, with backing from sole-LP Fonterra. It boasts a well-staffed team of nine across investing, science and operations, enabling strong collaboration and partnership with its portfolio companies. The fund also has a governance and compensation policy more akin to a financial VC than a CVC.
“There needs to be conversations around where competitors collaborate and where they compete in order to bring new technologies into our margin-constrained industry”
In 2025, Ki Tua Fund made just one new investment, a reflection of the challenging market conditions for food and agtech startups, as well demonstrating the fund’s ability to be patient. The industry is still recovering from a flood of venture capital money into the sector, which resulted in overvaluations and failures of startups that were unable to scale in a highly regulated and capital-intensive sector.
“There needs to be a shift in the innovation funding model within the food and ag space,” says Resek. She is calling for food and agriculture companies to collaborate where it makes sense across the value chain, much like how the oil and gas industry co-invests in costly and risky parts of their value chain. “There needs to be conversations around where competitors collaborate and where they compete in order to bring new technologies into our margin-constrained industry.”
The Emerging Leaders are mid-career corporate venture professionals who are making an outstanding contribution to their teams and the industry.
See the full list of Emerging Leaders here.
