Real-time soil-testing agtech startup Stenon raises $20M Series A funding round

Stenon, an agtech company that has a real-time soil-sensing solution, has raised a $20 million Series A funding round from Founders Fund, David Friedberg’s The Production Board and existing investors including Cherry Ventures and Atlantic Labs.

Founded in 2018 in Potsdam, Germany, Stenon’s digital soil data is produced without the need for a laboratory, making it faster and more efficient, the company claims. Stenon says farmers get data to make the best decision about cultivation, boosting yield, crop quality and soil health, while saving significant amounts of time and money by not needing to use a soil testing laboratory.

Co-founder and CEO Dominic Roth said: “Stenon’s mission is to become the soil data company in agriculture and get rid of the need for physical laboratories. Without soil data being available at scale, farmers will neither be able to work sustainably and profitably in the future. Additionally, the market is dynamically moving into the direction of regenerative ag or autonomous farming — all of these practices will require the data set that we are providing.”

Because half of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions come from current soil management practices, soil management systems like Stenon’s are becoming highly significant in the fight against climate change.

The Stenon technology is patented, certified and live in 20 countries. The certification is by the main European farmers’ association in collaboration with a panel of institutes like the Julius Kühn Institute in Germany.

Its main competitors are AgroCares, 360 Soilscan and ChrysaLabs (raised CA$1.4 million).

David Friedberg of The Production Board, commented: “Stenon’s real-time soil readings provide critical data to farmers, revolutionizing the current costly and time-consuming soil analysis process.”