July 12, 2024

By Gerelyn Terzo, Global AgInvesting Media

Estonia-based eAgronom, an agtech company specializing in climate technology, has attracted EUR 10 million to its coffers in a Series A2 equity round led by Swedbank AB. Of the total investment, eAgronom netted EUR 4.2 million from a booster round that took place last year, which has since been converted into equity, as well as EUR 5.8 million that rolled in this year. 

Founded in 2016, eAgronom provides solutions that incentivize farmers to implement smarter and more sustainable practices, including soil-based carbon capture techniques.

In addition to Swedbank, which invested EUR 4 million, other participants made follow-on allocations to last year’s convertible round, including Icos Capital, Soulmates Ventures, and the SmartCap Green Fund, to fuel eAgronom’s growth plans. eAgronom will direct the proceeds toward expanding its footprint in key markets as well as to scale the company’s presence in select sustainable farming programs, including Scope 3 emissions and sustainable financing.  

As of Q1 2024, global startups secured $66 billion in venture backing, the second-lowest performance since early 2018, according to Crunchbase data. The tally reflects a 6 percent increase compared with Q4 2023 but is down a steep 20 percent vs. year-ago levels. Artificial intelligence (AI) startups captured a 17 percent share of investments, at $11.4 billion, second only to the healthcare and biotech sector. Overall investor sentiment remains cautious, owing to persistent market headwinds including elevated interest rates.

Despite the challenging macroeconomic environment for fundraising, eAgronom is just getting started, as evidenced by plans to raise another EUR 2 million to EUR 4 million by year’s end 2024. With approximately 70 employees globally, the company has teams on the ground in Latvia, Poland and Spain as well as other countries in Europe and Africa through strategic partnerships.

Swedbank and eAgronom first partnered back in 2022 in an initiative to provide farmers with better credit conditions, since which time the relationship has expanded. eAgronom Co-founder and CEO Robin Saluoks explained in a statement how the farming sector is “extremely conservative,” with the average farmer accessing a mere 40 harvests for experimentation throughout their entire careers.

“eAgronom’s sustainability programs – food value chain/scope 3, offsetting, sustainable finance, and others – help to reduce the risk for farmers by providing extra incentives and education. The ongoing funding round will help us to scale these initiatives to many more farmers,” Saluoks said.

Swedbank Head of Baltic Banking Jon Lidefelt emphasized the bank’s commitment to supporting customers in the energy transition, saying, “The partnership with eAgronom adds to a fantastic overall solution for our agricultural customers in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. With this investment, we advance our commitment in eAgronom to strengthen the ecosystem of partnerships for the benefit of our customers.”

Key to eAgronom’s mission is equipping farmers with the tools they need for more sustainable practices. The company points out that food production is responsible for nearly one-third of total greenhouse gas emissions, 70 percent of which originate at the farm level (mainly from livestock). Farmers have responded by capturing, removing and storing carbon through more sustainable soil-based practices.

Meanwhile, the global population is booming, in response to which growers must bolster food production by 60 percent by 2050. Through a combination of carbon insetting and regenerative farming techniques, eAgronom is focused on shrinking carbon footprints while delivering financial incentives and educational resources to farmers.

The company has had the runway to perform field trials and seminars with partner farmers thanks to prior funding, as a result of which it has been able to assess the ideal practices for each jurisdiction based on climate and soil conditions. The latest investments will enable eAgronom to begin selling carbon credits through its carbon program, generating multiple revenue streams for farmers and enhancing its practice verification capacity.

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