Key Takeaways
- Julia Wilkinson argues that agriculture, land use, and forestry are economically material sectors that remain structurally underpriced in capital markets.
- She believes climate and inequality risks are economic risks that should be embedded directly into portfolio construction.
- LEBEC focuses on private markets and specialist managers, using blended finance structures to crowd in commercial capital.
- Regulation, affordability, and energy costs remain structural constraints in scaling agricultural innovation.
- By 2035, LEBEC aims to manage $5 billion in assets under management targeting systemic climate and food security challenges.
Agriculture does not typically dominate investor conferences. It does not promise the velocity of artificial intelligence or the exit multiples of software. It is capital intensive, weather dependent, and often politically sensitive. For Julia Wilkinson, Chief Investment Officer and Managing Partner at LEBEC, that framing misses a critical point.
“Even if we have no AI and no phones and nothing, we can't live without food and water.”
Her position is that food systems are foundational infrastructure, not that agriculture should emulate venture capital. LEBEC invests in sustainable agriculture across various private market asset classes, alongside other decarbonization and resilience efforts, with strategies benchmarked appropriately for their stage and risk.
