Early-stage innovation signals and market implications UpLink’s ecosystem insights reveal shared industry and regional priorities among ventures and investors, informing data-driven programming that strengthens partnerships and guides capital.01 Insights drawn from the UpLink ecosystem increasingly highlight where early-stage innovation is gaining momentum and where targeted support can unlock the greatest impact. Each year, UpLink assesses the expansion plans of ventures and investors across its community to understand their ambitions and identify emerging patterns in growth, collaboration and capital deployment. This assessment consistently highlights the top priorities for ventures, including building strategic partnerships, connecting with investors for fundraising and expanding into new markets or geographies. Agriculture, food and beverages, and agritech lead the list of priorities, followed closely by infrastructure and urban development, chemicals and advanced materials, retail and consumer goods, and banking and capital markets. Together, these sectors represent the areas where both groups are most actively seeking growth opportunities over the next 18 months. These ecosystem insights are reinforced by wider industry trends. A recent global report estimates that the agricultural technology (agritech) sector will grow from a 2024 valuation of approximately $24.42 billion to nearly $48.98 billion by 2030, reflecting a compound annual growth rate of 12.3%.10 This projected growth aligns closely with the strong interest in agritech observed across the UpLink community. Similar alignment is evident in how ventures are pursuing industry partnerships. Agriculture, food and beverages is the leading area of interest for ventures working across water, nature and biodiversity, the circular economy and plastics. Urban transformation ventures are engaging with the real estate and infrastructure sectors, while longevity ventures are exploring collaborations with banking, insurance and health actors. Together, these trends highlight the growing role of cross-sector partnerships in accelerating innovation across industries. Uplink Annual Impact Report March 2026 5

UpLink Annual Impact Report 2026