Climate and fintech company Agreena recently revealed their Series B raise of €46M. Spearheaded by German multi-stage investor HV Capital, the funding round includes fresh investments from AENU impact fund, Anthemis, and existing shareholders Gullspång Re:food, Kinnevik, and Denmark's Export and Investment fund. This impressive raise augments agreena's operations locally in the Republic of Moldova, making it one of the largest globally recognized soil carbon platforms.
It comes just one year after the company raised €20M in Series A funding. In the past decade, Agreena has scaled its activities by ten times, expanded its geographic footprint to include farmland in 16 European countries, and partnered with farmers to help them transition to climate-positive, regenerative farming.
Momentum is building globally regarding regenerative farming, with companies, governments, and supply networks looking to our farms as sources of carbon sequestration to reach global net-zero objectives. Farmers are beginning to take on a pivotal role in facing climate change, food insecurity, and other significant ecological matters through the implementation of regenerative agriculture tactics. Agreena has devised a method for farmers to turn this impact into a novel revenue stream with the help of carbon markets, thus providing financial support for their transition.
Farmers use Agreena's digital platform to plan, track and validate their journey towards regenerative farming. This process involves transitioning from emitting CO2 to drawing the gas down and storing it in soil. Benefits include:
Improved soil health and biodiversity.
Reducing the need for inputs while protecting farms against climate conditions like drought or flooding.
Resulting in better performance.
On the other hand, Agreena's certificates and services help climate-focused businesses decarbonize and provide traceability of agricultural commodities for companies in food supply chains to comply with Scope 3 reporting requirements.
Technology-based scaling
The recent purchase of remote sensing corporation Hummingbird Technologies has empowered Agreena to expand its offerings beyond farmers, reaching supply chain members, governments, and other organizations. Embracing a scientific-based, technology-oriented platform, Agreena now incorporates an AI-based observational and confirmation solution that uses satellite imagery with ground-truth data and artificial intelligence to spot and report on sustainable agricultural operations. By establishing global surveillance, the company is determined to pioneer in facilitating the path to carbon neutrality for the whole value chain.
Fintech from farmer to investor
Founded by Danish farmers, Agreena's next phase will introduce a vertically integrated platform and marketplace. Using the certificates created by monitoring farmers' carbon footprints in the field, corporates can create scalable portfolios tailored to their unique environmental, social, and governance practices.
Innovative financial solutions from the company provide the technological rails for the growing market. Blockchain technology, for instance, can be used to enhance the traceability and transparency of carbon credits, as well as e-money and smart contracts to facilitate payments between climate-conscious businesses and farmers with immediate reconciliation.