Key Takeaways
- Reservoir has acquired Contain, Inc., an agriculture finance and data platform, in its first-ever acquisition; terms were not disclosed.
- Contain founder Nicola Kerslake joins Reservoir as general partner and will chair the firm's investment committee, leading due diligence and underwriting.
- Contain brings a single-application financing platform that connected CEA startups with more than 30 lenders and more than 70 equipment vendors.
- The deal expands Reservoir's scope into agricultural equipment and controlled environment agriculture (CEA), adding marketplace, underwriting, and market intelligence capabilities.
- Kerslake previously founded Newbean Capital and launched and sold Indoor Ag-Con, one of the sector's best-known conferences for indoor and controlled-environment farming.
Reservoir Makes Its First Acquisition
Agtech venture firm Reservoir has acquired Contain, Inc., an agriculture finance and data platform, and appointed Contain's founder Nicola Kerslake as general partner. The move marks Reservoir's first acquisition and introduces a new layer to how the firm supports startups on the path from pilot to commercial scale. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
In her new role, Kerslake will chair Reservoir VC's investment committee and lead its due diligence and underwriting functions. She will work across both the investment and operating teams to align underwriting, validation, and commercialization support — including at Reservoir's on-farm incubator sites in California and beyond.
What Contain Brings to the Table
Contain built one of the most comprehensive financing platforms in the controlled environment agriculture sector. Its single-application system connected startups and growers with more than 30 lenders and more than 70 equipment vendors, offering a consolidated route to capital that the CEA industry had lacked. Alongside its financing platform, Contain operates a marketplace for pre-owned indoor farm equipment and an industry data and insights hub built on more than a decade of work in agriculture.
For Reservoir, the acquisition adds marketplace capabilities, underwriting expertise, and market intelligence that complement its existing focus on AI, hardware, and on-farm technology. The deal also extends the firm's reach into agricultural equipment as an asset class.
Reservoir's Thesis on Capital and Deployment
Reservoir invests at the intersection of AI, hardware, and field-level agriculture — a space where startups face specific challenges around deployment, unit economics, and the realities of scaling physical technology. The firm's acquisition of Contain is aimed at giving portfolio companies access to financing structures that better reflect those constraints.
“Reservoir invests where AI, hardware and agriculture meet in the field, and those companies need capital partners who understand deployment, unit economics and business models. Nicola built that discipline at Contain. Bringing her and the Contain platform into Reservoir can offer startups models that better align with the realities of scaling rugged AI-enabled technology,” said Danny Bernstein, founder and CEO of Reservoir and managing partner of Reservoir VC.
Kerslake's Background in AgTech Finance
Before founding Contain, Kerslake founded Newbean Capital and launched and sold Indoor Ag-Con, one of the sector's largest and most established conferences for indoor and controlled-environment farming. She brings more than a decade of experience managing early-stage venture capital mandates, with a background spanning institutional investment, venture capital, and agricultural finance.
“Reservoir is building a new trusted rural institution the sector has needed for a long time: capital that understands hardware, incubator farms where that hardware is put to work, and diligence that doesn't end at the data room. Collaborating with Reservoir over the past six months developed our rugged AI thesis, and now, I am excited to work more closely on developing Reservoir VC's next fund,” said Kerslake.
