Agritech startups in Amsterdam are on the rise. They have offered new possibilities in the farming and agriculture sector such as cutting down on production costs, enhancing food crop yields, or boosting productivity. There is no doubt that agritech’s effects and benefits will only continue to improve in time.
There are promising startups in this sector that have come up with smart solutions such as tracking harvests, building greenhouses, or even providing AI-driven services to farmers and companies. Such startups’ end game is simple – to provide creative and sustainable solutions to feed the world.
We have compiled a list of 7 such agriculture technology startups to watch out for in 2022 – four of these are hiring as well.
DeLokaleBoer
Founder(s): Omar Elfouli, Adam Emad
Founded in: 2020
DeLokaleBoer’s vision is that the farmer in the Netherlands can safely sell their products to the consumer without owing extra margins to third parties. In addition, it also aims to help consumers order fresh products through its platform DeLokaleBoer.nl.
The platform acts as an online marketplace for farmers, consumers (B2C), and companies (B2B). It claims to help farmers sell their products directly to the end consumer in a cheap way as well as provide an alternative to consumers to buy local, healthy and organic products.
Additionally, the platform also provides consumers and farmers with information about the origin/production process/recipes of natural agricultural products. The AI-driven SaaS system also helps farmers to reduce waste by predicting expected demand, making regional production and purchasing more effective.
Growy
Founder(s): Ard van de Kreeke
Founded in: 2016
Growy (previously GROWx) claims to be the first commercial vertical farm in the Netherlands. Based in Amsterdam, the vertical farms are fully automated and run on advanced technology allowing them to grow the ‘best’ produce there is.
Van der Kreeke says, “We aim to create the ideal climate for every plant. That means we have to do a lot of tweaking. In a growth cycle of three weeks, there are 100,000 data points and around 1,000 photos for 100 kinds of plants. It allows us to find out how we can get more vitamins or minerals in a plant by, for instance, adjusting the light it is exposed to. There’s a lot for us to optimise.”
Together with their partner, digital innovation studio INFO, they’ve developed the Plant Manager. This software package operates as a Farming as a Service solution for other similar farms. Van der Kreeke says, “It’s labour-intensive to experiment with plants. We now have a tool to gather data from growing produce, which will allow us to better optimise these products in the future.”
The company is currently hiring and is looking for interns as well as senior software engineers. Apply here.
Smartkas
Founder(s): Dr. David Meszaros
Founded in: 2020
Smartkas is an agriculture and food technology company that aims to disrupt the industry by using artificial intelligence, robotics, renewable energy, and water neutral systems together with high precision farming technology and a climate-neutral smart farming process. It provides Food-Security-as-a-Service in a fully automated and unmanned environment.
The company is looking to create a fully sustainable, clean, and green agricultural process relying on renewable sources for energy and water while producing food without pesticides in a smart and efficient way. Smartkas plans, builds, owns, and operates projects together with its veteran partners, supporters, and suppliers.
Currently, the company is hiring for various roles, check them out here.
Connecterra
Founder(s): Saad Ansari, Yasir Khokhar
Founded in: 2014
Connecterra is an agtech startup that trains Artificial Intelligence to learn how to farm in order to empower farmers of all sizes to increase the productivity of their farms, while reducing the impact of farming on the planet.
The company’s aim is to connect the farm and the total dairy value chain. To do that, it has developed ‘Ida’, a predictive intelligent AI platform that is active in finding solutions regarding regenerative, sustainable agricultural practices. Ida is not only trained to deliver accurate predictive insights but can manage inputs, optimise processes, and even integrate machinery, such as automatic gates and milking robots.
Connecterra combines proprietary sensor hardware, animal data, third-party enterprise data, and machine-learning algorithms in Ida. The solution enables users to track the management of individual cows and delivers information such as milk yield, management of antibiotic plans and biological cycles.
The company is looking to grow and is currently seeking talents. You can apply here.
30MHz
Founder(s): Flavia Paganelli, Fleur van Vliet, Jasper Geurtsen, Jurg van Vliet
Founded in: 2014
30MHz builds both hardware and software in collaboration with and for the benefit of the agricultural sector. The company’s data platform provides growers, farmers, and horticulturists with insight into the climatic conditions of their crops.
The platform interactively analyses information derived from various data sources such as climate computers, sensors and manual input. By visualising the data and connecting farmers, growers, advisers, distributors, and researchers within the platform, the scale-up contributes to the effective, efficient and sustainable cultivation of vegetables, plants and seeds.
Currently, the company employs 35 people and is looking for an account manager. You can apply here.
Serket
Founder(s): Atilla Erdodi, Kristof Nagy
Founded in: 2016
Serket is a technology company that is developing a sensor-free artificial intelligence that uses camera vision to enhance farm productivity and promote the health of individual animals.
Its recognition software helps monitor changes in animal behaviour in real-time and enable farmers to pinpoint sick livestock and intervene immediately. The company claims to use deep learning technology and computer vision technology for picture and video documentation that allows users to track and analyse the data.
With Serket, farmers can minimise antibiotics usage, reduce feeding costs, and lower mortality rates to improve animal welfare and raise healthier livestock. The company’s aim is to make agriculture a more natural and engaging industry for generations to come.
Serket has also been backed by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.
BetterSense
Founder(s): Shanglin Yang
Founded in: 2017
BetterSense uses blockchain, AI and IoT technologies to provide a platform for multi-industry applications such as healthcare, agriculture, supply chain, etc.
From July to September 2019, the company participated in one of the highest levels of AI greenhouse competitions, organised by Wageningen University & Research and Tencent. During the competition, it explored multiple AI methodologies such as reinforcement learning and professional plant models to make an intelligent greenhouse control system for advanced greenhouses.
The company now continues to innovate in the urban/vertical farming sector. On its website, BetterSense says, “Our focus has been on the AI-enabled plant nutrition-dosing management, to create an enabling technology for sustainable farming to reduce fertiliser use and ease the adoption of organic fertilisers, which are increasingly produced by the circular economy.”
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