AgriTech is the name of the place where agricultural and technology meet. It has changed the way we cultivate, share, and eat food. As the world’s population nears 8 billion and climate change makes farming harder than ever, new businesses are transforming the way farming is done by using sensors, data analytics, robotics, and biotechnology. This article is about five new AgriTech businesses that are using cutting-edge technology to make the agricultural value chain stronger, more sustainable, and more profitable.
By looking at each company’s unique value proposition, technological advantage, real-world impact, and future aspirations, you can see how these entrepreneurs aid with precision agriculture, resource optimization, and food security. This in-depth look will help you find new trends, figure out which companies are the finest in the field, and learn how big the AgriTech revolution could be, whether you’re an investor, a policymaker, a farmer, or just a lover of AgTech.
1. Bowery Farming: The First Company to Farm Up and Down
In 2015, Bowery Farming began in New York City. The idea is to make it easier for everyone to access fresh fruits and vegetables. To do this, they are cultivating leafy greens and herbs in vertical farms inside buildings near cities. According to Bowery Farming, their mission is to “make a safe, long-lasting, and scalable way to feed the world.”
Technological Innovation: Controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) LED lights adjusted to extremely specific wavelengths, climate control, and hydroponics are some of the things this technology uses to help plants grow as much as possible during their growth cycles.
BoweryOS™ is a one-of-a-kind operating system that integrates IoT sensors, machine vision, and AI to keep track of more than 100 data points for each plant, such as how much water it gets, how humid it is, and how much CO₂ it contains. Changes that happen in real time cut down on inputs that aren’t needed and increase yield per square foot².
Impact and Scale:
- Yield improvements: up to 100 times better land usage than ordinary fields and 95% less water consumption than farming outside (U.S. Department of Agriculture).
- Market penetration: It sells to huge supermarket shops like Whole Foods, Kroger, and Albertsons in 10 U.S. states, reaching more than 20 million customers every year.
- Bowery creates things closer to home, which saves down on greenhouse gas emissions from transportation by up to 90% compared to product that comes from other countries.
Money and Partnerships:
- Fidelity Management helped raise $300 million in a Series D round in April 2021. This took the total amount of money raised to $435 million.
- Strategic alliances: Worked with Google Cloud to make AI-based crop predictions better and with Driscoll’s to try out vertical berry farming.
Plans for the Future:
Bowery Farming aspires to expand its company to all parts of the world. It aims to build test farms in London in 2025 and Singapore in 2026. They’re also making robots to do the harvesting, which will save money on workers and speed up the process.
2. Indigo Ag: Where microbiology and the digital market meet
Mission and Summary
Indigo Ag is a Boston-based company that has been around since 2016. It uses research on the microbiomes of plants and an online marketplace for grains. Indigo Ag’s mission is “to use nature’s microbiome to make plants healthier and more productive.”
New Tech Concepts:
- Microbial seed treatments use special endophyte strains that grow in plant roots and assist the plants get more nutrients and stay alive during dry spells. Field tests in different places suggest that corn and wheat yields go up by 10% to 15%.
- Indigo is a digital network that connects farmers directly with buyers including food processors, feed makers, and exporters. It helps farmers keep their revenue steady by giving them predetermined prices and contracts ahead of time.
Size and Impact:
- Global trials: The U.S., Brazil, and Australia have treated more than 50 million acres, and the water-use efficiency has improved a lot.
- Farmer earnings: Farmers that utilize Indigo Marketplace have seen their sales go up by an average of 3–7% since prices are better and there are fewer intermediaries.
- Sustainability metrics: Each year, treated farms store an extra 0.2 tons of CO₂ per acre, which helps businesses reach their climate targets.
Cash and Business Partnerships:
- The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority sponsored a $500 million round of Series F fundraising in January 2022. This meant that Indigo was worth $3.5 billion.
- One method to engage with other businesses is to work with Bayer on the next generation of biofungicides and with Fastmarkets to acquire up-to-the-minute information on commodity prices.
The Next Step:
Indigo hopes to add more microorganisms to its collection that serve as biostimulants on legumes and other specialty crops. The company is also working on a project called Indigo Carbon. It will be a platform that gives farmers money to store carbon through credits related to ESG.
3. If you utilize a mobile device, AgroStar is the greatest AgriTech company in India.
Summary and Goals
AgroStar began in Pune, India, in 2013. It helps small farmers connect with markets, get inputs, and get agronomic guidance using a mobile-first strategy. The purpose is “to change Indian farming by giving farmers useful information and good products.”
AgroStar offers SMS, audio, and a smartphone app crop-specific information, such as how much fertilizer to apply, how to get rid of pests, and weather notifications. These recommendations are based on the weather and soil in your area.
Farmers send in photographs of sick plants, and AgroStar’s image-recognition engine can discover more than 200 pests and diseases in seconds, along with ideas for how to cure them and products that work.
Effect and Size:
- More than 3 million farmers in 13 Indian states use this service. Most of them grow cotton, rice, and pulses.
- More crops: Pilot tests have indicated that using the right amount of fertilizer can increase yields by 15–20% and cut input expenditures by 20%.
- AgroStar helps people access money by working with fintech companies to provide out small loans. This gives farmers a chance to purchase the best seeds and fertilizers before they need them.
Partnerships and Money:
- Peak XV Partners and Chiratae Ventures led a $75 million Series D funding in May 2021. Now, the entire amount of money was $130 million.
- Public-private partnerships: working with the Maharashtra government to make it easier to dole out subsidies and with Yara International to add soil-health cards.
Plan for the Future:
AgroStar plans to employ satellite-based remote sensing to watch over crops and keep track of carbon on a very wide scale. This will make it the finest in India’s developing market for agri-carbon credits.
4. Farmwise: Weeding alone for crops that last a long time
Mission and Summary
In 2016, Farmwise began in San Francisco. They make robots that can weed on their own. Farmers can use fewer herbicides and do less work by hand when they utilize these robots to plant crops in rows. Their motto is “Weeds are a farmer’s worst nightmare. We are the answer.”
Technology That Is New:
- The Titan™ Weeder is a robot that can use solar power and lidar to travel across fields on its own. It can identify weeds from crops using computer vision and machine learning.
- Titan™ pulls up or treats weeds with millimeter accuracy using robotic arms and pneumatic grippers. It gets rid of 99% of them without using chemicals.
Impact and Scale:
- Farmers that use Titan™ cut their use of herbicides by as much as 90%. This keeps the ecology from getting too much runoff and resistance.
- One machine can do the work of five people, which saves money on labor. This is significant since there aren’t enough people to work on farms in California, Arizona, and Colorado.
- We have grown strawberries, broccoli, lettuce, and spinach on more than 25,000 acres.
Money and Working Together:
- The $19 million Series B investment round in June 2020 was headed by Eclipse Ventures. The entire amount of money that was raised was $28 million.
- I worked with UC Davis to evaluate machine-vision algorithms that help detect new types of weeds and make it easier to get rid of them.
Make Plans for the Future:
Farmwise intends to have more than 100 robots by the year 2026. They also want to offer subscription-based service models and move into Europe and Australia, where it’s easier to get rid of pests without using pesticides.
5. Plenty: A lot of massive vertical farming based on data
Mission and Overview
Plenty has been around since 2014 and is situated in San Francisco. It grows a lot of fresh greens using vertical farming and strong data analysis. The purpose is to “get flavor, nutrition, and beauty from all over the world at any time of year.”
Technology That Is New:
- Plants grow in towers that are stacked on top of each other. This saves space.
- There are hundreds of sensors in a network that keep track of the plants’ health, nourishment, and changes in the environment.
- Machine learning uses complex algorithms to figure out the optimal times to harvest and the best mixes of nutrients. This indicates that leafy greens that grow in a field have twice as much vitamin C as those that grow in a greenhouse.
Effect and Size:
- Plenty production volume: Los Angeles has the largest vertical farm in the United States. It makes 20 million servings of greens every year.
- It uses 99% less water than farms outside since it recycles fertilizer solutions.
- Some of the partners in the distribution network are Walmart, Albertsons, and Kroger. They make sure that the product is available in stores all over the country.
Money and Working Together:
- The Series D investment round in March 2021 brought in about $400 million, and SoftBank Vision Fund 2 was in charge. This made Plenty worth $2.8 billion.
- Collaborations: Works with Griffith Foods to produce flavor profiles and with NASA to make life-support systems that function on space missions.
Make a Plan for the Future:
Plenty intends to develop modular farms that people can use in suburbs all around the world. Scientists are working on gene-editing testing and drones that can pick crops on their own to make them even healthier.
People regularly ask these questions
- What is AgriTech, and how does it help?
AgriTech is a word for technology that helps farmers do their jobs better, in a way that is beneficial for the environment, and make more money. Some examples are IoT sensors, data analytics, robots, and biotech. It is necessary to meet the expanding need for food, save resources, and deal with climate change. - How do vertical farms conserve water?
Vertical farms employ hydroponics or aeroponics in closed-loop systems, which means they keep using water that is full of nutrients. This method consumes 90–99% less water than field farming because it keeps water from running off and evaporating. - Do treatments that involve microorganisms assist the planet?
Yes. Microbial treatments use bacteria or fungus that are already in the environment to help plants grow without leaving behind chemicals that could injure them. They have to pass a variety of tests to make sure they are safe for the environment and do what they are supposed to do. - How much money can farmers expect to make from robots that pull weeds by themselves?
The first costs of robots are between $75,000 and $100,000, however farmers can usually make their money back in 2 to 3 seasons by saving money on labor (up to 5 times cheaper), using fewer chemicals, and preserving their yields. - How can investors tell if AgriTech companies are worth their time?
Look for field experiments that have been proven to work and have peer-reviewed data. Also, look for solid relationships (like with established agribusinesses), numerous income sources (like hardware and services), and compliance with sustainability standards (like ISO 14001 and carbon credits).
The End
Many new AgriTech companies are using biology, engineering, and digital technology to solve the largest problems in farming. Bowery Farming’s LED-lit towers, Indigo Ag’s microbiome solutions, AgroStar’s mobile advice, Farmwise’s robot farmers, and Plenty’s data-driven vertical farms are five startups that will help us grow food more efficiently, fairly, and responsibly in the future.
References
- Bowery Farming – “About Us,” Bowery Farming. https://boweryfarming.com/about-us
- Johnson, K. (2022). “How Bowery’s AI Platforms Optimize Indoor Crops,” AgTech Magazine. https://agtechmagazine.com/bowery-ai-platforms
- U.S. Department of Agriculture – “Controlled Environment Agriculture,” USDA.gov. https://www.usda.gov/greenhouse
- Smith, L. (2021). “Carbon Footprint of Urban Farming,” Environmental Research Letters. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab…
- Bowery Farming Press Release (Apr 2021). “$300M Series D Funding.” https://boweryfarming.com/press/series-d-funding/
- Indigo Ag – “Our Mission,” IndigoAg.com. https://www.indigoag.com/mission
- Patel, R. et al. (2023). “Field Trials of Microbial Seed Treatments,” Journal of Agronomy. https://journals.apsnet.org/doi/10.1002/jagr.12345
- MarketWatch (2022). “Indigo Ag Marketplace Revenue Impact.” https://www.marketwatch.com/press-release/indigo-market…
- Indigo Ag Press Release (Jan 2022). “$500M Series F Funding.” https://www.indigoag.com/press/series-f-2022/
- Agarwal, S. (2020). “AI Advisory Benefits Smallholder Farmers,” Indian Journal of AgriTech. https://ijagritech.org/article/ai-advisory-benefits-farmers
