Agriculture tech company, Agreena, has announced €46m in funding, led by multi-stage investor HV Capital. The funding will support the continued expansion of global carbon farming initiatives and new fintech solutions.
The announcement comes one year after the company’s €20m funding boost. Since then, Agreena has increased activities, expanded it geographic footprint to 16 European countries and partnered with farms to help them transition more than 600,000 hectares towards climate-positive regenerative farming.
Simon Haldrup, co-founder and CEO of Agreena, said: “In order for the world’s farmers to transition to regenerative agriculture and create a scalable climate impact, the financial rails to support and pay them for it need to be built.
“Agreena is building out technological and financial services infrastructure throughout the agriculture value chain as the industry increasingly becomes a focal point for decarbonisation efforts.”
Regenerative farming
With interest and investment in regenerative farming growing globally, businesses, governments and supply chains are looking for solutions to allow them to meet net-zero targets. Through the adoption of regenerative agriculture practices, farmers will play an increasingly essential role in tackling climate change, food insecurity, and other critical environmental issues. Agreena said it has developed a way to turn this impact into a new and additional revenue stream for farmers to help finance the transition by leveraging the carbon market.
Via the company’s digital platform, farmers can plan, track and validate improvements for their regenerative journey, in the process transitioning from emitting CO2 to drawing CO2 down and storing it within their soils. The improved soil health and biodiversity reduce the need for inputs while enhancing farmers’ resilience to increasingly adverse climate conditions (such as drought or flooding), enhancing the overall operational performance of farms.
From Farmer to Fintech
Agreena was originally founded with seed investment from Danish farmers and agricultural families. The company’s next phase introduces a vertically integrated platform and marketplace. Working first with farmers in the field to monitor the carbon impact, the resulting certificates are constructed into scalable portfolios for corporates, tailored to their unique ESG strategy.
The company provides the technological rails for the growing market with innovative financial solutions. Examples include using sustainable blockchain technology for enhanced traceability and transparency of carbon credits, and e-money and smart contracts to facilitate payment exchanges between climate-conscious corporates and farmers with immediate reconciliation at scale.
“We are on a journey to remove the economic barriers to adoption of regenerative agriculture for farmers and their entire ecosystem – carbon is just the beginning,” said Mr Haldrup.
