[ad_1]
Meals safety is among the greatest challenges looking at us proper now. With rising inhabitants progress and restricted pure sources, addressing this drawback is the necessity of the hour.
Whereas there are a variety of agtech startups attempting to deal with this problem, Dutch startup Agurotech desires to deliver a radical change in the best way farming is completed.
The Amsterdam-based startup affords options that allow farmers to transition from their present methodology of farming to a data-driven way forward for farming.
Utilizing information and insights, Agurotech helps farmers to effectively use sources similar to water.
This week, Agurotech raised €1.5M in Sequence A funding from ROM InWest and Navus Ventures to gasoline data-driven arable farming.
Each month, we speak to a founder on their quest for funding, and Agurotech co-founder Joëlle van den Model’s mission to affect the farming trade is infectious.
What’s Agurotech?
Meals safety disaster will not be a distant problem however an ongoing one exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and trade-related insurance policies imposed by nations.
The mid-year replace of the International Report on Meals Disaster 2022 reveals as much as 205 million persons are anticipated to face acute meals insecurity and be in want of pressing help in 45 nations.
One answer to this drawback can be to extend manufacturing, however arable land will not be solely shrinking however is going through human-induced threats similar to speedy urbanisation, mining, farming, and ranching cattle set off land degradation.
All these actions trigger injury to the nutrient holding capability of the land and over time, make it inconceivable to conduct farming on the land.
Joëlle van den Model, who has a MS in Mathematical Economics from Maastricht College, sees this problem not solely as a tech drawback but additionally as a knowledge drawback.
“There’s most certainly not one answer for this problem,” she says. “It is going to be a mix of extra sustainable farming practices, innovation, higher use of know-how, maybe a change of weight-reduction plan, extra sustainable logistics and so forth.”
This early realisation of the best way to overcome this meals insecurity drove Joëlle van den Model to co-found Agurotech with Lilia Planjyan.
The Dutch startup develops, produces, and delivers {hardware} and software program options to assist farmers with sustainable and data-driven farming.
Its {hardware} and software program options embrace sensor know-how, climate stations, and purposes that supply farmers real-time perception into the situations of their fields and information that tells farmers what their crops want for optimum progress.
“The intuitive software program supplies farmers with real-time insights into soil situations, native climate situations, and AI-powered predictions,” she explains.
The tip results of deploying Agurotech’s {hardware} and software program options is that farmers enhance their yield and use sources extra effectively.
Think about a farmer rising extra crops in the identical subject whereas additionally utilizing much less water and different sources. Agurotech makes that occur.
Impacting the farming trade
The standard farming is usually finished primarily based on instinct, expertise, and what Joëlle calls “intestine feeling.”
She says farmers don’t base their selections on info or information, which ends up in both underneath or over utility of sources and productiveness loss.
With 80 per cent of the world coping with water shortage, the farming trade is going through the specter of drought and even the land turning into arid.
“Some components of the world can’t farm the identical crops as they used to, because of water shortages,” Joëlle says.
Along with these challenges, farmers are additionally pushed to undertake extra sustainable farming practices.
To beat the pure problem and likewise change into sustainable, farmers are turning in direction of data-driven or precision farming applied sciences.
“There’s a huge affect that may be made by enabling the farming trade to use extra data-driven methods of working,” Joëlle says.
There are a whole bunch of tens of millions of farmers globally, who nonetheless depend on conventional farming.
For Agurotech’s founders, their affect on the farming trade will come within the type of know-how that farmers wish to use, not solely to enhance their enterprise mannequin but additionally contribute to sustainability objectives.
Knowledge is every part
In our hyper-connected world, every part is information besides when it isn’t. Even in farming, every part is information and studying in regards to the breadth of that information from Agurotech is astonishing.
Joëlle tells Silicon Canals that Agurotech’s sensors measure electrical conductivity, soil moisture, and soil temperature at a number of depths.
The climate stations that Agurotech affords to farmers measure native climate situations similar to temperature, rainfall, humidity, and temperature.
As soon as the info is collected, Agurotech combines it with agricultural fashions and informs farmers “whether or not or not the circumstances within the fields enable for optimum crop progress.”
It doesn’t simply cease there. The software program answer additionally helps farmers with info they will use to extend crop yields.
“Agurotech advises farmers on whether or not their soils want extra irrigation, if the soil has a great salinity degree and what the expected soil moisture situations can be,” provides Joëlle.
All that information wouldn’t be potential with out the sensors and climate stations that Agurotech designs in-house.
Whereas designing its sensors and climate stations, Agurotech confronted the problem that each different firm confronted throughout COVID-19 pandemic: provide chain disruption.
Joëlle says some components that had been a part of their prototype had a ready time of over 50 weeks and as a startup, Agurotech didn’t have the leverage of a longtime tech firm like Apple to expedite the supply or construct its personal stock.
“This pressured us to revamp crucial components of our know-how to permit it to suit extra obtainable parts,” provides Joëlle.
This redesign course of value Agurotech about half a 12 months’s time however the journey is an instance of the best way to overcome complicated issues with easier options.
Fundraising with a mission
At Silicon Canals, we’ve documented the battle of Dutch startups to lift early-stage funding extensively.
This funding turns into much more difficult in case you are an affect startup or startup in a subject like agtech.
Even Agurotech confronted some challenges whereas going forward with its Sequence A funding spherical.
Joëlle doesn’t mince phrases when she says that buyers thought-about early-stage startups with a mix of {hardware} and the farming trade to be dangerous.
She provides, “They typically required a number of proof factors which had been difficult to offer in 2.5 years time.”
For Joëlle and Lilia, each setback is a studying expertise and this expertise made them search for an investor with good strategic match, proper market expertise, and information.
They discovered companions in ROM InWest and Navus Ventures, with whom they see a possibility to construct a powerful partnership.
“The 2 buyers we discovered complement one another and are very supportive of our marketing strategy,” says Joëlle.
ROM InWest not too long ago backed tex.tracer, which is one other female-led Dutch startup attempting to affect the style trade to succeed in its sustainability objectives.
Joëlle says they don’t have a concrete plan to lift further funds however does see a possible to develop sooner with a second spherical.
Way forward for Agurotech and data-driven farming
One of many issues that Agurotech is doing in a different way is permitting farmers to see its tech in motion and resolve for themselves.
“There’s a lot at stake for farmers in relation to their harvest and they don’t simply wish to experiment with applied sciences that may doubtlessly put their yield in danger,” says Joëlle.
“We imagine in giving farmers the info that they should help resolution making and supply them with actionable recommendation that’s particular to their soil and plant sort,” she provides.
This course of had led to Agurotech spending a number of time on decoding its sensor measurements and including concrete worth to the every day operations of farmers.
Like many different industries, the agtech trade can be male dominated however like different Dutch feminine founders, Joëlle doesn’t see it as being male or feminine.
She says it’s finally about constructing the perfect product and suggests feminine founders ought to handle any “feminine particular” challenges immediately with buyers.
With €1.5M at its disposal, Agurotech now plans to scale up its know-how and distribution.
The startup can be seeking to construct robust partnerships with totally different trade gamers to ramp up market entry and distribution.
It additionally plans to develop internationally however goals to remain rooted in analysis and growth chops.
“We’ll proceed to develop modern options to assist the farming trade be simpler, environment friendly and sustainable,” says Joëlle.
[ad_2]
Source link