Wisdom Tree said the acquisition would expand its leadership in innovative, income-generating investment solutions, while Ceres noted that both parties would be "uniquely positioned" to capitalize on the next wave of farmland growth.

As the need to produce more food using fewer resources becomes critical, WisdomTree has announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Ceres Partners, a US-based alternative asset manager specializing in farmland investments.

The acquisition jumpstarts WT’s entry into private assets, with a focus on a high-growth $3.5 trillion US farmland market and adjacent verticals, including solar, artificial intelligence data infrastructure and water.

It delivers immediate scale and anticipated long-term upside, bringing about $1.85 billion in assets under management (AuM) across about 545 farmland properties spanning 12 states, predominantly in the Midwest, the firm said in a statement. Together with existing strengths in ETFs, tokenization and digital infrastructure, WT will offer clients institutional access to a differentiated set of exposures across both public and private markets.

With farmland recognized as one of the largest and most underpenetrated real asset classes in the US, WisdomTree believes that there is significant opportunity for growth. The asset class historically provides resilient, inflation-protected returns and is largely uncorrelated to traditional equity and bond markets. As demand accelerates for income-generating, inflation-hedged private investments, this transaction will help WisdomTree offer differentiated access on an institutional scale. With farmland prices and asset values having risen in the US in all but nine years since World War II, Ceres represents a value-added platform in a category that has the fundamentals for greater advisor and institutional adoption, the firm said in a statement.

“Farmland is one of the largest yet most underpenetrated real asset classes in the US, offering both scale and scarcity,” said Jonathan Steinberg, WisdomTree founder and CEO. “This acquisition expands our leadership in innovative, income-generating investment solutions, while strategically accelerating our entry into private asset markets with a high-quality, scalable platform.”

“Together, we are uniquely positioned to capitalize on the next wave of growth in farmland – including solar, AI data infrastructure and water – with a shared commitment to innovation and long-term value creation,” Perry Vieth, founder and CEO, Ceres Partners, added.

The firm aims to raise over $750 million in farmland assets by year-end 2030 with fee structures approximating 1 per cent base/20 per cent performance and double base fee revenue by year-end 2030.

As AI and nature-based investing impact equity investing, other investment managers are stepping up investment in food and farmland. Swiss private bank Union Bancaire Privée (UBP), for instance, recently highlighted the positive effects of AI in the agriculture space, delivering social and environmental outcomes as well as financial returns. With the food system accounting for 30 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions and resources being scarce, Adrien Cambonie, portfolio manager of UBP’s Biodiversity Restoration strategy, stressed the importance of investing in precision agriculture, to produce more using fewer resources.

The strategy is in the listed space, designed to enable investors to benefit from equity returns while contributing to conservation and restoration projects. A top holding is US-based agriculture machinery producer John Deere which uses AI in its “See & Spray” agricultural technology, covering one million acres in 2024. The system reduces herbicide use by nearly 60 per cent, contributing to more sustainable farming practices. Another top holding is US-based agriculture machinery producer AGCO which also specialises in precision ag technology. See here.

Alastair Cooper at Cibus Capital, also believes that the need to produce more food using fewer resources to feed a growing population has become critical. “The catalyst is new technology which is offering new solutions around resource efficiency and sustainability. Large-scale farmland needs to revert to more organic and regenerative agriculture and use new tech to make up the slack in terms of production,” Cooper told this news service. See here.