Agtech startup Source.ag announced a seed funding round of $10M, led by Acre Venture Partners with participation from MIT-affiliated E14 Fund, Astanor Ventures, and leading growers Agro Care, Rainbow Growers and Harvest House Cooperative.
Source.ag is developing technology to democratize access to sufficient fruit and vegetables through A.I. powered greenhouses. Greenhouse agriculture is an answer to safer, more reliable and climate-resilient food production: it produces up to 15 times higher yields and uses up to 20 times less water, while reducing pollution and use of land. While the global demand for greenhouse agriculture is rising, its growth is hindered by the high dependency on, and the growing shortage of, growers to operate these facilities. By capturing decades of growing experience and knowledge into algorithms, Source.ag enables more greenhouse growers to operate more farms more efficiently.
“Climate change is driving substantial scarcity and strains in our global food supply. As this accelerates in the coming years, we must find ways to scale efficient growing solutions that lighten the footprint of agriculture” said Lucas Mann, Managing Partner at Acre. “Greenhouse agriculture is a proven and viable solution, but without innovation, demand will be impossible to meet. We believe Source.ag can play a vital role in driving its global scalability.”
"By combining plant models with machine learning techniques, we can simulate crop development in any environment. Our technology provides growers with advice on the optimal cultivation strategy and support to realise it. This is an important first step in our mission to deliver more healthy food to more people without breaking our planetary boundaries.” said Rien Kamman, CEO and co-founder.
Source.ag has partnered with leading Dutch growers including Agro Care, one of the world’s largest tomato growers, to roll out the first version of the product. “Source has built an intelligent platform that provides unprecedented insights and instantly shows us crucial information that can make or break a season. The A.I. that they are developing has the potential to optimize for key factors that can help us get to more consistent results at scale.” said Kees van Veen, CEO of Agro Care.
Founded in November 2020 by Rien Kamman (CEO) and Ernst van Bruggen (CTO), Source.ag has grown to over 30 people and is based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The funding will be used to accelerate product development and expand commercial collaborations.
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www.source.ag