Noordwijk, South Holland-based Spatialise, a developer of soil health monitoring platform, announced on Thursday, November 21 that it has secured €350K from UNIIQ, an investment fund focused on the proof-of-concept phase.
The announcement comes a few days UNIIQ invested €350K in Bionomic, a Dutch agtech company.
In October, The Hague-based UNIIQ announced €2.5M to invest in various companies and also signed a partnership with TNO, an independent organisation for applied research.
Spatialise: Soil health monitoring
Founded by Soufiane el Khinifri, Spatialise has created a soil health monitor that uses satellite data and AI to estimate soil nutrients in farmland topsoils.
According to the company, this information is valuable for monitoring and evaluating the carbon footprint of food value chains: from farm to fork.
Additionally, the data provides insights and analytics of regenerative agriculture, such as land restoration initiatives.
Soufiane el Khinifri explains, “Our digital soil analysis technology makes it possible to accurately measure the organic carbon (SOC) and other essential nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (NPK) in the soil. This allows farmers to optimise their use of fertilisers, resulting in fewer emissions and cost savings.”
“Making regenerative agriculture accessible worldwide through AI-driven technology, is our mission. This investment will enable us to further develop and expand our soil monitoring solutions so that more farmers can improve the health of their soil while saving costs,” adds Soufiane.
UNIIQ: Focused on “proof-of-concept
UNIIQ is a €50M investment fund focused on the “proof-of-concept” phase. UNIIQ assists entrepreneurs in South Holland in bringing their innovative ideas to market more quickly.
The fund is managed by a team of investment specialists, including Innovation Quarter, Leiden University, Erasmus MC, and TU Delft.
Since 2021, UNIIQ has committed resources in Early Phase Financing (VFF), and an application for VFF is in accordance with the proven UNIIQ investment methodology.
UNIIQ is made possible in part by the EU.
“Spatialise is taking a big step in making the agricultural sector more sustainable through the use of advanced AI technology. We are delighted to invest in a company that offers both cost-saving solutions for farmers, and makes a significant contribution to reducing the environmental footprint of agriculture,” says Jasper Geselschap, Fund Manager of UNIIQ at InnovationQuarter.
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