Four agricultural start-ups receive funding

Whether soil sensor or satellite navigation: The Federal Ministry of Agriculture supports the developments of agricultural start-ups that promise innovation for food and agriculture.

The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Landwirtschaftliche Rentenbank handed over the first four funding decisions for agricultural start-ups. Minister Cem Özdemir handed over the funding notices in January to the startups Constellr, Crop.zone, Feldklasse and Organifarms.

To facilitate labor-intensive processes in fruit and vegetable harvesting, the Constance-based startup Organifarms has developed a harvesting robot. This is designed to harvest strawberries, control quality and package the fruit. Constellr, a Freiburg-based startup, wants to use a fleet of satellites to collect data to analyze plant and soil health. The goal is to use this data to develop resource-efficient applications. Crop-zone, a company based in Aachen, Germany, is also looking at soil health. The founders want to combat weeds with application technology instead of chemicals, thereby increasing environmental quality. Start-up Feldklasse from Meerbusch has a similar goal. The company wants to reduce the burden on the environment with a hoeing technique that combats weeds without harming crops.

This is precisely the kind of innovation that the German Federal Ministry of Agriculture wants to support and promote. The new funding is particularly targeted at the early financing phase, as this usually takes longer for agricultural startups than in other sectors. The reason for this is the dependence on nature. Certain products simply cannot be tested in the field in winter. This often results in financing gaps at the beginning, but these are to be bridged by the new funding.