After expanding to North America, Amsterdam-based Source.ag scores €15M to make greenhouse cultivation smarter and efficient.
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Amsterdam-based Source.ag, an agtech startup that assists greenhouse farmers with AI, has secured €15M in a Series B financing round.
The investment was led by Astanor, with strategic participation from seed breeder Enza Zaden and grower cooperative Harvest House, among others.
Astanor is an impact investor accelerating the agri-food and broader bioeconomy towards a regenerative food system.
The company invest in innovative, scalable companies in Europe and North America and works hands-on with founders to achieve measurable, positive impact.
The company’s portfolio comprises approximately fifty investments, from seed to growth, covering the entire food value chain, from soil to plate.
Hendrik Van Asbroeck, Managing Partner at Astanor, says, “Making the food chain more sustainable is our objective, and Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) is a necessary technology to achieve this. Since our initial investment, Source.ag has proven that AI is the key to scaling climate-resilient food production. They have successfully transformed AI from a promising theory into an indispensable operational platform for the world’s largest producers of fresh fruit and vegetables.”
This new capital injection brings Source.ag’s total funding to more than €52M in five years.
The funding will accelerate global growth and product development and further expand its AI suite.
The announcement comes over five months after expanding its operations to North America.
Rien Kamman, CEO and co-founder of Source.ag says, “This Series B funding is confirmation that the industry believes in our vision: innovation in the food chain is only possible if AI companies work closely with the industry. Our ambition is to provide everyone with sufficient fruit and vegetables in a climate-proof way. This investment confirms that the market sees us as the AI partner that will lead the sector into the future.”
Source.ag: Democratise access to sufficient fruit and vegetables
Founded in 2020 by Rien Kamman (CEO) and Ernst van Bruggen (CPO), Source.ag is developing technology to democratise access to sufficient fruit and vegetables through AI-powered greenhouses.
The company uses millions of data points on climate, biology, and resources to build and implement optimal production plans using their in-house developed algorithms that simulate plant behaviour.
Since its inception in 2020, the software has been implemented in more than 300 greenhouses spread over 2,500 hectares in 18 countries.
This area contributes to the daily supply of tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers for around 40 million people.
Greenhouse horticulture is a highly efficient way to address land and water shortages, but it is becoming too much for people to manage alone.
A Dutch company is solving this by centralising data and digitalising growing practices, acting like an “AI co-pilot.”
Their software helps companies predict tomato harvests more accurately and automates irrigation fully.
This leads to increased production and better quality, and efficiency from growers to consumers, claims the company.
“The key player is the grower, the person who ensures that healthy food is available in the supermarket every day, and we build the solutions they need to do this even better,” adds Kamman.
