Reservoir, the early-stage venture capital vehicle focused on agriculture tech innovation, announced the acquisition of Contain, Inc., an agriculture finance and data platform, in the fund's first-ever acquisition. Alongside the deal, Contain founder and CEO Nicola Kerslake joins Reservoir as a new General Partner.

The move signals an evolution in what Reservoir VC can offer the startups it backs, layering deep underwriting, capital markets, and agricultural financing expertise onto a fund already built to shepherd physical AI companies from field trials to production-level impact.

What Reservoir VC Is Building

Reservoir VC invests at the intersection of AI, hardware, and agriculture, specifically in companies tackling real problems in high-value crops and the rugged physical AI stack. That includes everything from direct chemical replacement to automation of the hardest-to-fill jobs in agriculture.

Contain, Inc. had built a meaningful network before the acquisition: connections to growers, more than 30 lenders, and more than 70 equipment vendors. That infrastructure now becomes part of the Reservoir platform, a significant addition for portfolio companies that need not just capital, but access to the financing ecosystem around agricultural technology.

Who Is Nicola Kerslake?

Kerslake brings an unusually broad background to the General Partner role. Before founding Contain, she founded and successfully exited Indoor Ag-Con, one of the agriculture sector's best-known conferences. Over the past decade, she has also managed early-stage venture capital mandates through Newbean Capital.

Her experience spans institutional investment, venture capital, and agricultural finance — a combination that gives Reservoir VC meaningful depth as it builds out its investment thesis around the next generation of rugged AI companies.

Kerslake has been collaborating with Reservoir for the past six months to help develop that thesis. She'll now focus more closely on Fund II.

"Reservoir is building a new trusted rural institution the sector has needed for a long time," Kerslake said. "Capital that understands hardware, incubator farms where that hardware is put to work, and diligence that doesn't end at the data room. I am excited to work more closely on developing Reservoir VC's Fund II."

A Platform Approach to AgTech Investment

The acquisition of Contain reflects a broader ambition at Reservoir: to be more than a check-writer. By bringing financing infrastructure and capital markets expertise in-house, the fund is positioning itself as an end-to-end partner for hardware-forward agriculture startups navigating the long road from prototype to commercial scale.

For the Santa Cruz region, which has quietly become home to a growing cluster of AgTech and climate-tech ventures, Reservoir's expansion adds another institutional layer to the local innovation ecosystem.

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