Utrecht-based Sensoterra, a water technology company, announced on Tuesday that it has raised €1M in funding from Future Food Fund and the Regional Development Agency (ROM) Utrecht Region.
The Dutch company says it will use the funds to expand its water management smart soil sensors for agriculture and horticulture, smart city management, and water governance.
CTO and Co-CEO at Sensoterra, Ellery Rijkaart, says, “With the funding, we will be able to focus our efforts on scaling up sales efforts and product development activities to build even better solutions, saving more water, and realising higher yields.”
What does Sensoterra solve?
Sensoterra reveals that around 70 per cent of freshwater globally is used in agriculture, and 40 per cent of that is wasted due to over-irrigation and pollution.
Water resources are under more pressure than ever before. Cities are struggling to create and maintain urban green spaces while also grappling with the effects of climate change. Good water governance is crucial to mitigating these effects and using water more efficiently.
Sensoterra: What you need to know
Founded in 2015, Sensoterra develops water management solutions for agriculture/horticulture, smart city management, and water governance.
The company offers IoT-based soil moisture measurement systems based on its unique sensors. Soil moisture is a measure based on the company’s proprietary and patent-pending algorithm that combines impedance and resistance properties of the soil.
Data is sent by LoRaWAN (low-power wide-area network) from the probe to the gateway. With cellular connectivity, data is sent from the gateway to a server owned by the provider and through the cloud to a Sensoterra server.
Sensoterra CCO & Co-CEO, René Voogt, says, “When Sensoterra was established in 2015, it was developing one of the first IoT-based soil moisture sensors on the market. Over the years, the sensors have been refined to ensure that they provide a rare combination of low cost, ease of installation, high accuracy, and no required maintenance.”
According to the company’s claims, the accuracy of the measurements is 99.5 per cent.
As a result, the Dutch startup enables its end customers, farmers, advisors, and (smart) cities to save water, fuel, and inputs, while simultaneously realising higher crop yields and better-quality greens.
The company manages over 12,000 active sensors on the ground globally, and this number is rapidly growing.
Investors
Future Food Fund is a Dutch seed capital fund that is founded and funded by over 30 entrepreneurs. Future Food Fund invests in North Western European, early-stage companies that change the value chain of the food & agriculture sector with innovative technology and disruptive business models.
Managing Partner Jeroen Kimmels of Future Food Fund, “We have been following Sensoterra for years. With the entrance of the new managers and owners, the further development of the soil measurement systems, and growing customer base, we feel now is the time to invest and accelerate growth.”
ROM Utrecht Region is a regional investor that increases access to capital for innovative companies in the Utrecht region. They invest in the major sectors – digital, health, and sustainability. The investment in Sensoterra is made from the Participation Fund.
Jeffrey Williams, Sr. Investment Manager at the ROM Utrecht Region, says, “We are happy to support Sensoterra, a company that fits well within the Earth Valley cluster of the Utrecht region, in its mission to tackle the problem of water overuse, the main contributor to water scarcity.”