(NAFB) – The agri-food-tech sector saw a record investment total in 2020.

AgFunder reports total dollars committed to agri-food-tech ventures in 2020 are expected to hit $30.5 billion, representing a 34.5 percent increase over 2019 investments. The sector’s stellar performance is attributable to an increasing number of big funding rounds, signifying a maturing sector with a few clear outliers. Michigan-based cold storage and warehousing venture Lineage Logistics’ $1.6 billion funding round accounted for five percent of the projected investment total.

Plant-based meat company Impossible Foods raised two rounds totaling $700 million, leading a long and increasingly tech-diverse roster of investor-backed alternative protein companies. There were also a lot of small rounds, which AgFunder says speaks to investor confidence in placing their bets on the agri-food-tech sector at large, and on the next generation of early-stage innovations and technologies.

Early-stage investments grew ten percent year-over-year in 2020, as the number of deals grew 15 percent.