Greek Agritech startup Augmenta, a company that develops a precision agriculture app for farmers, raises $2.5 million in a seed round led by San Francisco Hardware Club and supported by the previous investor, Athens Marathon Venture Capital, the Augmenta team announced in their press release. Reportedly the investment will help the company to expand its operation in North and South America.
“Our goal is to be within reach of every farmer. No average farmer could afford to buy anything with the ‘precision agriculture’ title so far,” George Varvarelis, Augmenta’s founder and CEO told AgFunderNews. “By bringing retrofit equipment to the market, farmers in India, China and Africa can eventually use this system.”
Although there were many companies that previously tried to help farmers receive better and more efficient insights on their farm, however the poor technology couldn’t provide good results. What’s more, the available technology was also expansive and not affordable to most of the farmers.
With the latest technology developments and the bright solution that Augmenta offers, farmers can now have valuable insights for affordable price, the Augmenta co-founder and COO, Dimitri Evangelopoulos, explains.
Founder & COO at Augmenta / Photo: Dimitri’s LinkedIn Profile
“While the idea behind precision agriculture has always been a good one, the technology to make it immediately actionable just hasn’t been there. For the first time, we can deliver full, real-time automation and all the benefits that implies. We call it Augmented Agriculture and it is already making a difference,” says Evangelopoulos.
Founded in November 2016, Augmenta started its operations in 2017 in Athens Greece. Its founders, George Varvarelis and Dimitris Evangelopoulos, both farmers and system engineers, developed an AI (Artificial Intelligence) solution that would help every farmer anywhere in the world to make their farm production efficient and thus increase their seasonal net income. More precisely, Augmenta provides a plug and play device that can be attached to any tractor or other farm machinery in order to determine the amount of fertilizers, fungicides and pesticides that every inch of the farm needs in order to reach its full potential.
According to the company info, the system is designed to work according to normal farm operation schedules, without the need for any additional time-consuming procedures, such as logistics and elaborate calibrations. The farmers simply have to drive their tractor, sprayer or spreader on the farm like they always do and Augmenta takes care of the rest.
Released for the first time at the 2019 World Ag Expo in Tulare, California, the app has so far become a huge success. Reportedly, the app is already installed and tested in eight different countries and used on more than 26 thousand acres.
For the new investor, Harware Club, the expertise and the technical talent that this startup offers to solve a great real-world challenge, it is what made them support Augmenta.
“Augmenta combines extensive farming expertise and serious technical talent applied to real-world challenges. Augmenta is better for farmers, better for the environment, and ultimately better for producers and consumers of food. We’re thrilled to be partnering with the Augmenta team to help their global expansion”, says Aymerik Renard, General Partner at Hardware Club.
The old and actually the very first investor that funded this startup in the pre-seed round, Marathon Venture Capital, is happy to witness this great success that Augmenta made so far and is excited about the startup’s future.
“Augmenta went from a groundbreaking idea to the world’s first fully autonomous variable rate application of farm inputs within a year. The company’s offering is being received with enthusiasm from farmers around the world, and it is triggering the interest of some of the biggest players in the space. We were happy to double down on our investment and truly excited about the company’s future”, explains George Tziralis, Partner at Marathon Venture Capital.
