Tag: Accelerating Regenerative Agriculture

iUNU

iUNU

Powering the 21st century greenhouse

Precision agriculture specialists for precision growing

Entrepreneurs
Adam Greenberg, Rooney Kyle, Conrad Travis & Erez Younker

Founded
2013

Partnered
2021

HQ
Seattle, USA

Category
Accelerating Regenerative Agriculture

Leveraging the power of artificial intelligence and computer vision to optimize indoor farming

iUNU (“you knew”) helps growers apply computer vision, artificial intelligence and machine learning in their greenhouses to optimize operations.

With the greenhouse industry growing at a rate of 20% per year, owners are scrambling to find solutions to manage and maintain their growing operations effectively. Today, most growers still make decisions based on manual sampling and hand-collected crop and labor data. Additionally, the shortage of labor in the US and Europe has compounded the issue. iUNUs solution turns growing operations into data-driven manufacturing facilities by identifying problems before they occur to reduce loss, project yields remotely and improve workflow.

No clip boards, no more walking up and down endless aisles, just a digital binder that keeps tabs on every facet of the organization at the touch of a screen.

iUNU develops AI applications that not only optimize crop yield to increase growers’ margins, they also allow growers to work proactively instead of reactively in solving plant issues to improve crop health and redirect how they use their resources to minimize waste significantly. Their flagship product, LUNA, is a mix of hardware and software for growers.

iUNU acquired Astanor portfolio company Artemis in 2021. Artemis provides software solutions to growers to improve traceability and labor productivity. The combination of Artemis and iUNU gives growers a one stop shop for technologies to manage the greenhouse.

iUNU news

Monarch Tractor

Monarch Tractor

The Tesla of agriculture

The only electric, autonomous and compact tractor in the world

Entrepreneurs
Praveen Penmetsa, Mark Schwager, Zachary Omohundro, Carl Mondavi

Founded
2017

Partnered
2021

HQ
Livermore, CA

Category
Accelerating Regenerative Agriculture

Transforming the most important vehicle on the planet, tractors.

The Monarch Tractor combines electrification, automation, machine learning and data analysis to set a new standard in tractor technology capabilities.

Monarch is a mission-driven company aiming to elevate farming practices to enable clean, efficient and economically viable solutions for farmers. They are leveraging technology more commonly associated with battery-powered automotive players such as Tesla to build robotic tractors.

Monarch operates much like a software company. The world class team assembled is iterating and deploying rapidly. Monarch is in relentless pursuit of building not just the best electric tractor, but the best tractor.

Cutting emissions: Unlike your standard diesel tractor, which produces roughly 14 times the emissions of the average car, the Monarch Tractor is 100% electric, has zero tailpipe emissions and is just as powerful with 40-70 horsepower. This cuts over 60% of the farm’s fuel and service expenses while also significantly reducing the farm’s  contribution to climate change. Monarch tractors, when charged with renewable electricity, reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 53 tons per year.

Driver-optional: In addition, the Monarch Tractor is driver-optional, allowing operators to simultaneously pilot multiple tractors while allowing farmers to ride the vehicle like a conventional tractor.

Unlocking Data: Cameras on the sides of the tractor feed a continuous stream of images that inform decisions on where and when to plant. These critical data points can be used for real-time implementation adjustments, as well as long-term yield estimates.

Monarch news

Calyxia

Calyxia

Going beyond chemistry to build a green and advanced world

Introducing the world’s 1st sustainable and high-performance microencapsulation technology

Entrepreneurs
Jamie Walters

Founded
2015

Partnered
2021

HQ
Paris, France

Category
Accelerating Regenerative Agriculture

Leveraging the power of green chemistry to end global microplastic pollution

Calyxia has developed, through 25 years of fundamental research in colloid science, a unique technology to produce the world’s first readily biodegradable and advanced performance microcapsules, to directly combat global microplastic pollution.
Through decades of pollution, there are now over 200 million tonnes of microplastics in our oceans and rivers. Microplastics are found in over 210 commercially important species of fish, in over 90% of all tap and bottled water worldwide.

Today, microplastics are intentionally added to agriculture products to enhance crop yield, and to everyday products such as laundry detergents and shampoos, to provide long-lasting fragrance sensations. In addition, microplastics are generated by the deterioration of plastic materials used in automotive, electronics and sporting goods.
In agriculture and everyday products, Calyxia microcapsules offers a biodegradable and resource efficient solution to replace and eliminate intentionally added microplastics. In advanced materials, Calyxia microcapsules provide a game-changing solution for manufacturers to create lighter, stronger and more durable materials. They prevent plastic materials from breaking down, by increasing the wear resistance and prolonging the product lifespan in-use by over 10 times.
Calyxia partners with world-leading manufacturers in agriculture, home care and advanced materials to take on the war on microplastics and build a green and advanced future for all.

Jamie Walters
CEO & Founder, Calyxia

“

Astanor is world-renowned firm, with an unparalleled network and expertise in high-impact green innovations. Partnering with Astanor is accelerating our international expansion and global product deployment. Together, we will play a pivotal role on the war against microplastic pollution.

Calyxia News

MiiMOSA

MiiMOSA

Seeding the Transition to Sustainability

MiiMOSA provides an impact funding marketplace, focused on financing the transition towards a sustainable agrifood sector.

Entrepreneurs
Florian Breton

Founded
2015

Partnered
2020

HQ
Paris, France

Category
Accelerating Regenerative Agriculture

Supporting the Transition to Regenerative Agriculture

MiiMOSA is the leading funding marketplace dedicated to agricultural, energy and food transition. The platform connects donors and lenders with farmers in search of financing. Through the platform, individuals, corporate partners and investment funds can find investment opportunities that are both financially attractive and more impactful than traditional asset classes. Borrowers obtain tailor-made solutions adapted to their financing needs, whether that be evolving their production methods, diversifying their business to include other commercial activities associated with the farm, managing inter-generational transition, or otherwise.

Agricultural financing needs have more than doubled in the last ten years, yet solutions haven’t evolved or adapted to support sector-specific challenges. This is critical as these challenges are at the heart of what’s blocking more sustainable practices from becoming mainstream and a more resilient agriculture sector from emerging. The existing banking system lacks responsiveness to do this. However, interest among individual investors and consumers to contribute to a more sustainable planet and invest in highly impactful companies, especially in food and agriculture, has grown substantially – presenting an opportunity to connect mission-aligned capital and demand.

MiiMOSA’s strength is the simplicity and speed of its participatory financing platform and authenticity of the local projects it has attracted onto the platform. In 5 years, MiiMOSA has supported over 3,500 projects, enabled more than 35m euros to be invested in projects in France and Belgium, and gathered a community of 250,000 contributors.

MiiMOSA news

Aphea.Bio

Aphea.Bio

Applied Nature for a Better Agriculture

Aphea.Bio develops microorganism-based biopesticides and biostimulants.

Entrepreneurs
Isabel Vercauteren, Steven Vandenabeele

Founded
2017

Partnered
2020

HQ
Ghent, Belgium

Category
Accelerating Regenerative Agriculture

Next-Generation Agro-Biologicals for a Sustainable Future

Aphea.Bio develops new and superior agricultural biologicals. By focusing on microbial strains that improve plant nutrient uptake (biostimulants) and strains that protect against disease (biocontrol), Aphea.Bio provides farmers with innovative and sustainable solutions to reduce fertilizer and pesticide use.

Unravelling complex interactions and identifying beneficial microbial strains amongst the millions of microorganisms present in and around the plant requires solid scientific insights. To this end, Aphea.Bio has developed an innovative R&D platform bundling different technologies in bio-informatics and microbiome mapping, state-of-the-art microorganism culturing, high-throughput crop phenotyping and data analysis.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that pesticides are responsible for up to 5 million cases of poisoning each year, of which 20,000 are lethal. By providing biologicals, which can complement or substitute agricultural chemical products, Aphea.Bio leads the way to an urgently needed, more sustainable agriculture.

Isabel Vercauteren
CEO and Co-Founder

“

Astanor Ventures was the perfect lead investor in our Series B funding round. We both share the same ambition of making an impact on modern agriculture and moving towards a healthier and more sustainable food system.

Vivent

Vivent

Letting plants speak for themselves

Vivent captures and decodes electromagnetic signals in plants to understand crop health in real-time.

Entrepreneurs
Carrol Plummer, Nigel Wallbridge

Founded
2012

Partnered
2020

HQ
Crans-près-Céligny, Switzerland

Category
Accelerating Regenerative Agriculture

Vivent provides plant health intelligence in real-time

Plants communicate their relative health or distress through small electrical signals, not unlike the electrical impulses in humans. Until recently, these signals were only measurable in a laboratory. Today, advances in electronics and signal processing allow sensors that can be used in-field or in-greenhouse to monitor sustained periods in a plant growth cycle. By amplifying these signals in plants and interpreting them using machine learning, Vivent provides second-to-second information on plant stress levels. The company can further translate these signals to diagnose specific stressors, including pest infestations, diseases, water stress and nutrient deficiencies.
The implications of this technology are numerous. The combination of overall stress monitoring and diagnosis of specific issues allows growers to produce more, and more nutritious, food with optimized inputs. By detecting stressors early, Vivent enables environmentally preferable interventions and helps growers reduce their reliance on chemicals. By tuning into real-time signals from plants, Vivent even allows automated greenhouse systems to be run by crops themselves.

Carrol Plummer
CEO

“

Astanor’s visionary approach, deep connections in the agrifood system, commitment to environmental and social impact and understanding of AI is rare among investors and why we chose them as a partner.

Vivent news

MagGrow

MagGrow

Grow more by using less

MagGrow provides improved spray technology to significantly reduce the amount of pesticides used on farms.

Entrepreneurs
Gary Wickham, David Moore

Founded
2013

Partnered
2020

HQ
Dublin, Ireland

Category
Accelerating Regenerative Agriculture

Helping farmers meet their sustainability targets

The EU ‘Farm to Fork Strategy’ requires a reduction in pesticide use by 50% by 2030. Some countries have added their own additional laws to support similar ends. Holland has enforced drift laws to protect water quality. They are one of the first countries to implement drift laws through fines, but countries such as Germany also have plans to implement drift laws with a target set that 50% of boom sprayers must reduce spray drift by at least 75% by 2023. England and France are also looking at similar legislation.

This is welcome news for healthy soil and ecosystems across Europe – and a tremendous adaptation challenge for the agriculture sector. Agricultural practices and technical solutions that reduce the use of pesticides are in demand now, out of necessity, and will be paramount in achieving EU targets.

MagGrow is an enabler for countries to reach these ambitious targets. It’s patented, proprietary technology significantly reduces waste associated with conventional pesticide spray applications, delivering important plant protection products where they matter the most. The MagGrow technology passes pesticides through magnetic fields under appropriate flow conditions and changes the physical properties of the fluid. This delivers both superior spray drift control and crop coverage. Increased spray coverage performance can range from 20% to well over 100% compared to conventional spraying. MagGrow has many other benefits, such as a significant reduction in water usage by up to 50%, extended spray windows, and reductions in labour. The MagGrow system has no moving parts, is easy to install and maintain, and can be fitted to a new or existing crop sprayer.  Farmers who are using MagGrow’s technology to date are spending typically >€100k on spraying per annum.

There is an increasing demand for food & water, and MagGrow’s technology is supporting a more sustainable approach to primary food production. While prompted by competitive demands and the global challenge of meeting the needs for future food production, MagGrow’s primary focus is on meeting customer needs and satisfaction based on results.

 $60bn is spent on pesticides annually with over 70% of the pesticide spray not hitting the target crop, but without crop protection, the world would have 50-80% less food. Because of this, biodiversity and bio-geochemical flow factors are at near-critical, tipping point levels. MagGrow’s technology is a key component of the transformation to regenerative agriculture.

MagGrow news