Microsoft is teaming up with the controversial agricultural biotech firm and GM foods proponent Monsanto Co., to invest in agribusiness startups in Brazil.

Monsanto said it’s to invest an undisclosed amount of cash into Microsoft’s Brazilian startups fund, Reuters reported. Reuters added that one source said the biotech firm’s total investment could add up to $92 million, though this couldn’t be confirmed. The fund, which is managed by Microsoft, was set up to evaluate ideas for new digital tools that can be applied to agricultural production in the country, executives from the two companies said. It focuses on companies that have already been through the acceleration process, but are not big enough to gain access to venture capital funding on their own.

“We will be Microsoft’s agribusiness arm,” said Rodrigo Santos, Monsanto’s president for South America, in a talk with journalists at the Global Agribusiness Forum earlier this month in São Paulo. “We believe that collaboration is a key tool to ensure that the world can feed 9.7 billion people by 2050, and this is a step in that direction.”

Officials said that the process for selecting startups to receive funding will run from now until August 7. Selected startups will then receive funding of up to 1.5 million Brazilian reais (around $459,000). Project owners will then have the option to pay back the investment after three years, or convert the money into equity.

Startups interested in applying to the fund must be registered agritech businesses with at least two members, and annual revenues of between R$300,000 ($92,108) and R$10 million ($3 million). Applications will only be accepted online.

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