Estonian agtech startup eAgronom raises €1 million to bring more farmers into the digital age
Date:11-19-2018
Many farmers still use inefficient notebooks or excel sheets to keep track of their fields and farm activities. Innovations in agtech are changing this, allowing farmers to record, access, and analyse their farm data digitally – leading to significant improvements in productivity.
Founded by the son of a farmer and an experienced software developer, Estonia-based eAgronom provides farmers with a set of convenient and intuitive digital tools that simplify daily and seasonal farm management.
The startup’s web and mobile platform allows farmers to manage and oversee their entire farm, employees, and fields in real time. As a planning and management tool for grain farmers, eAgronom helps farmers to make better financial decisions and reduce their risks through proper planning and task timing. Case studies have shown that eAgronom can save farmers tens to hundreds of thousands of euros per year.
Founded in 2016, eAgronom has already expanded to nine countries and is used to manage over 700,000 hectares of grain land.
The company recently raised a seed investment round of €1 million from Black Pearls VC, Trind Ventures, TMT Investments, United Angels VC, and business angels, including Ragnar Sass, Andrus Purde, Martin Tajur, Andres Kull, and Aivar Berzin.
Stenver Jerkku, COO of eAgronom, said: “With the additional funding, we plan to move towards the vision of helping farmers make financially and ecologically smarter decisions by making data about their farming activities accessible and easy to understand. The funds will be used to improve platform’s agronomical and financial analysis modules to help calculate how agronomical decisions affect financial results. The investments will also help scale sales and support teams to bring more farmers into digital age.”
Robin Saluoks, CEO of eArgonom, adds: “But it’s about more than funding. All the investors in this round have given us valuable knowledge that we will use to grow the business. International VCs, target market investors and builders of successful SaaS start-ups – they all support and help us focus on our long-term strategy. This is crucial for building a company that is going to optimize the entire food industry.”
Ragnar Sass, Pipedrive Co-Founder and CEO of LIFT99, commented: “I mean, how many startup teams have their own field? Literally, their own plot of land to gather some grasp of what farming really means? The entire team is utterly passionate about a topic that truly matters, and that’s noteworthy. Plus, they pulled off raising half a million investment from their own users! This should be inspirational to all the founders out there.”