Tartu-based agricultural technology startup eAgronom recently announced a significant investment of $5.5 million aimed at promoting the adoption of sustainable farming practices. This funding comes from prominent investors, including Icos Capital, Soulmates Ventures, and SmartCap Green Fund, and will play a pivotal role in enabling eAgronom to expand its digital tools on a larger scale. With a steadfast commitment to promoting intelligent and sustainable agricultural practices, eAgronom aims to inspire farmers to embrace a greener future. Furthermore, eAgronom has received a dedicated grant from Enterprise Estonia to support its product development and innovation alongside the funding round.
Through its carbon credit income program for farmers, eAgronom balances sustainability and financial viability – both crucial to today’s agricultural businesses. eAgronom first measures and verifies farms’ carbon footprints using GHG monitoring, which enables them to create sustainability plans tailored to individual farms. To support this transition, the company then directly subsidises farmers implementing soil quality improvement, fertiliser and fuel use optimisation, and other practices. Carbon credits generated from these practices provide an additional revenue stream for farmers, making increased sustainability beneficial on all fronts. eAgronom already supports farmers across Spain, Poland, Romania, East Africa, and seven other markets.
“With this additional funding, we can continue our efforts to facilitate the transformation of farming practices, enabling them to manage their farms in a more sustainable manner, while simultaneously providing them with supplementary revenue streams and a chance to improve their soil conditions for the future. These steps are crucial in the global fight against climate change where we need to act rather sooner than later.” says Robin Saluoks, CEO of eAgronom.
“eAgronom represents exactly the kind of investment we’re always looking for. This is a forward-thinking yet deeply practical company that is tackling the most urgent challenges of the future with an emphasis on sophisticated technology, financial viability, and large-scale adoption. The carbon program is already proving attractive to eAgronom’s farmers, and we’re excited to see it expand with our support,” says Nityen Lal, Managing Partner of Icos Capital.
“eAgronom represents the philosophy of purpose-profit driven startups we are looking for. The well-experienced team at eAgronom delivers a complex data-driven solution, that combines three business streams into one platform, empowering farmers to leverage sustainable agriculture practices. Based on that, farmers’ income and food quality are increasing leaving behind undegraded soil without the excessive use of fertilisers. We are delighted to support eAgronom on their journey in tackling critical challenges and becoming global leader in the agtech market,” notes Michal Sikyta, Investment Manager of Soulmates Ventures.
“The global crises of recent years and the growing climate problems have shown us more and more acutely that it is necessary to develop sustainable ideas and technologies bolder and faster than before,” said Sille Pettai, Fund Manager and Member of the Board of SmartCap. “Investors, consumers, and society in general are already interested in technologies and solutions that help solve pressing global problems. Our aim is to transfer the continuation of the success story of Estonian technology companies also in the field of greentech, to see ambitious Estonian companies such as eAgronom achieving international success in creating greener, sustainable economies.”
The investment of SmartCap Green Fund was funded by the resources of the European Union’s recovery plan – NextGenerationEU.
