xFarm eyes global growth after raising €36 million
xFarm Technologies, headquartered in Switzerland, now plans to expand across Europe, Turkey, Latin America, India and the US. It also intends to enhance its services to provide greater support for the implementation of regenerative agriculture. This will be done using models based on artificial intelligence technologies for data analysis and insurance products.
The company currently supports more than 450,000 farms across more than 100 supply chains, covering seven million hectares worldwide. Most of its users are in Europe (68%), 18% are in Brazil, and the remaining 14% in other countries.
The new funding round, which follows the €17 million Series B round in 2022 and the first €3 million round in 2019, was led by global technology investment firm Partech, through its Impact Growth Fund. This aims to scale European impact-native technology leaders seeking to solve environmental and social challenges.
The round also saw the participation of Mouro Capital, a London-based venture capital firm that targets growth-stage fintech investment opportunities across Europe, North America, and Latin America. Swisscom Ventures, United Ventures, and all previous institutional investors also participated in the round.
Born from the merge between xFarm and Farm Technologies in 2021, the company offers apps for farm management, connected sensors, support in digital transformation projects, algorithms applied to agriculture and training activities for the whole sector.
Regen ag and finance solutions a priority
xFarm now aims to support its customers employ regenerative agriculture practices at scale. It will provide them with more advanced solutions and technologies, using increasingly innovative tools such as geospatial artificial intelligence.
This will enable xFarm to offer more support on the insurance and financial management side. Fintech expert Mouro Capital will help xFarm create a new Fintech and Insurtech division to develop its services in the fields of risk management and lending. Greater and easier access to credit is often cited as key to agtech adoption.
Manuel Silva Martínez, general partner at Mouro Capital said: "As traditional fintech investors, we feel that xFarm Technologies' vision to digitalise the agricultural sector concurs with their product being a great entry point to serve their clients' financial needs.”
CEO of xFarm Matteo Vanotti said the global agri-food industry is witnessing a time of “profound” change and major challenges. “We want to continue to provide the most advanced and effective tools to navigate this landscape,” he said, “with further investment in R&D and innovation, cutting-edge technologies in climate intelligence and AI for agronomic support, and a focus on sustainability and regenerative agriculture”.
With the latest investor support, he added, “we will continue to innovate, driving digitalisation from a supply chain perspective and helping farmers to manage their farms even more effectively and sustainably.”
Rémi Said and Arnaud Minvielle, General Partners at Partech. Said the company has all the elements to become the global leader in farm management software and a critical player in the agricultural value chain transition.
Trust in farmer data sharing
One challenge facing the company, however, is the issue of farmer trust. One talking point that emerged from the recent World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit in London were concerns about data privacy and ownership among users of digital farming solutions.
“At xFarm, we take data privacy and ownership very seriously,” responded Vanotti. “We ensure full transparency with our users about how their data is collected, stored, and used,” he said.
“Users retain ownership of their data, and we provide them with tools to control access and sharing. Additionally, we strictly adhere to relevant data protection regulations to guarantee data security and privacy. Our goal is to empower farmers with valuable insights while ensuring they remain in control of their data at all times.”
