By Lynda Kiernan
Soil is a living ecosystem – home to billions of microorganisms that all factor into our ability to achieve the highest potential in crop production. However, we know far less about soil than we do about the crops it grows. Complicating this relationship further, more topsoil is lost from agricultural production each year than is added, according to Jeremy Stroud, Bonnefield Agricultural Investment Analyst, and Michael DeSa of AGD Consulting, who noted in their article Soil Erosion and Degradation: Opportunity Amid the Loss, published by GAI News in April of this year, that estimates exist we are losing 1 percent of our topsoil each year.
The importance of gaining a more thorough understanding of soil has become a front line concern in recent years, and agtech startups and their investors are stepping up to provide answers and solutions.
Part of these advances is the realization that we have to take a wider, more inclusive view of agriculture – considering the entire “microbiome”, or the totality of genetic material that make up a working system, much like how our gut biome has been gaining attention when examining human health.
Along these lines, Biome Makers, a tech startup that employs AI and advanced analytics to analyze soil ecosystems, has raised $4 million in funding through a round co-led by Seaya Ventures and JME Venturers, with participation from LocalGlobe.
Founded by company CEO Adrián Ferrero and company CSO Alberto Acedo, who have worked together previously to co-found a successful digital healthcare company, Biome Makers promotes soil health by using its novel technological platform to generate data-driven insights for farmers.
“Soil is the most valuable asset to support life on earth, but we don’t really know how to keep it healthy and global food production suffers as a result,” said Ferrero.
“We have developed a pioneer technology platform based on DNA sequencing, network-based data analytics and artificial intelligence that allows us to see in the soil what others don’t see. There is a huge opportunity to improve the health and productivity levels of farms globally.”
Currently, there are companies that take soil samples for chemical analysis, but Biome Makers takes a new, deeper approach. And although rivals such as Pivot Bio or Indigo Ag have similar services, Tech Crunch reports that Biome Makers claims to be the only one to provide an open platform to farmers.
“Biome Makers have pioneered a technology solution that not just helps farmers better manage their $60B+ spending on agricultural products and maximize their production, but also enables a more sustainable food production value chain,” said Aris Xenofontos, Seaya Ventures. “Due to modern agricultural practices, we have lost nearly one third of fertile soil per capita in the last 40 years globally and Adrián, Alberto and the team have discovered a way to reverse this trend.”
This is the second funding round for Biome Makers, which previously raised $2 million from a cadre of international investors including Illumina Accelerator, an investment unit of Illumina, a leading producer of DNA sequencing instruments; Viking Global Investors, a leading US-based investment management firm; and venture capital firm DST Global.
The company plans to use the fresh capital raised through its latest round to continue to expand its global footprint across the U.S., EU, and Latin American markets; to expand its number of crop types; and to increase its offerings to include services such as an assessment system for agricultural products.
“Our vision is to build a global soil dataset that allows us to partner with the industry to support the development of new biological products for unsolved problems in agriculture,” said Ferrero.
For sustainability-focused Seaya Ventures, which has invested deeply in urban sustainability through its backing of Cabify and MOVO, this investment in Biome Makers expands its portfolio reach into the food production value chain – a channel that it sees as having great potential.
“We are very excited to have the opportunity to join Adrián and Alberto in their journey to build the ‘biological encyclopaedia’ of the soil and we are looking forward to supporting them using our experience with high-growth international businesses,” said Xenofontos.
Likewise, this is the first investment in agtech for JME, as well.
“This is our first investment in the agtech space and we are eager to see how Biome Makers will help in finding solutions for better agricultural practices in the coming years,”said Maria Hernanz, JME Ventures.
“As a sector-agnostic fund, JME Ventures focuses on companies that can disrupt different industries: “We have previously invested in companies that have changed the value chain of various industries, such as payments (Flywire) and workforce (Job & Talent). We believe Biome Makers could follow the same growth path as these companies.”
– Lynda Kiernan is Editor with GAI Media and daily contributor to GAI News. If you would like to submit a contribution for consideration, please contact Ms. Kiernan at lkiernan@globalaginvesting.com