January 26, 2023

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

Existing and new investors have come together to commit $27.6 million in strategic capital to EarthOptics, a leading soil-measurement and insight innovator. 

Led by Conti Ventures, the round also saw participation from some of the world’s most well-known agtech investors including Rabo Food & Ag Innovation Fund (RFAIF), CNH Industrial, Louis Dreyfus Company Ventures, CHS, and Growmark’s Cooperative Ventures Leaps by Bayer, FHB Ventures, S2G Ventures, iSelect Fund, Route 66 Ventures, and Middleland Capital’s VTC Ventures.

“The revival of interest in soil is highly encouraging and much needed,” said Pieter van der Meche, head of RFAIF. “Given the fundamental importance of soil health to the food and agriculture systems, we are excited to support Lars and his team in bringing EarthOptics’ truly disruptive solution to our bank’s global network of farmers, corporates, as well our ecosystem services teams of The Carbon Bank and ACORN.”

Founded in 2018, EarthOptics believes that below-ground precision and innovation has lagged. Since its launch, the company explained that its ultimate goal has been to deliver point-of-care soil health insights – related to physical, chemical, and biological attributes of soil – in real time.

What sets EarthOptics apart is GroundOwl™ – a suite of capabilities leveraging ground-based sensors, satellites, physical soil samples, machine learning models, and agronomic expertise to help farmers and ranchers make more-informed decisions about their land.

The insights delivered by this groundbreaking technology have the power to help farmers optimize fertilizer applications, make better tillage decisions, quantify carbon sequestration, and more. 

“We believe EarthOptics has a clear advantage in soil measurement technology, as they improve the scalability of measurement while helping to reduce extrapolation error,” said Chris Abbott, co-head, Conti Ventures.

“As we look for technologies that can verify critical soil measurements for growers, we believe EarthOptics stands out in providing agronomic value as well as verification for initiatives like carbon credits.”

EarthOptics stated that this Series B funding will expand access to its valuable tools delivering hyper-accurate soil insight and will enable the scaling of its SoilMapper™ platform; will result in immediate cost savings for farmers; and will serve the company in meeting growing customer demand. 

“With small margins and unpredictable input prices, farmers are looking for ways to improve productivity,” said Lars Dyrud, CEO, EarthOptics. “Our product does that in a way that fits seamlessly into individual operations. Farmers no longer must rely on expensive soil analysis from labs. Powerful soil insights from EarthOptics can transform the way decisions are made on the farm.”

In 2021, EarthOptics beat out three finalists and more than 100 global agtech startup entries to win the AGCO Innovation Challenge Award, and recently, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that EarthOptics has been chosen to be a partner in its Climate Smart Partnership for six separate proposals.

Reflecting the company’s ongoing momentum, 2022 was also a success for the company, which saw 10x growth in acres covered and new partnerships with global food companies. 

“EarthOptics is a leading agriculture platform that accurately measures key aspects of soil health,” concluded James Ramey, Middleland Capital’s VTC Ventures. 

“Ranging from compaction levels and nutrients through carbon sequestration, the company is perfectly positioned to deliver strong ROI for growers while advancing climate resilience initiatives.”

~ Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor in chief with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, as well as HighQuest Group’s Unconventional Ag. She can be reached at lkiernan-stone@globalaginvesting.com.

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