Assisting farmers with AI-led data, Swiss agritech xFarm reaps in €17 million

Switzerland-based agritech startup xFarm Technologies has raised €17 million in funding to help farmers with sustainability measures on the farm and collaborate with other supply chains, such as livestock management, through technology like artificial intelligence (AI). The Swiss agritech aims to expand in Europe and new markets, including the U.S.

According to the company, this is one of Europe’s largest Series B funding rounds in the agritech sector. Prior to this round, the company had raised €3 million in a Series A round in 2019.

The Series B round was led by Zurich-based Swisscom Ventures, with participation from Neva SGR (Intesa Sanpaolo Group), Emerald Technology Ventures, NovaCapital, and Grey Silo Ventures. xFarm’s lead investor of the Series A round, United Ventures, also participated in the round.

Founded in 2017 by Matteo Vanotti, Martino Poretti, and Salvatore Ferullo, the startup uses in-field sensors to provide farmers and other agricultural enterprises with a platform that gathers and analyses data from across the farm. The data includes information on pests, weed growth, irrigation requirements, and financial issues.

The company claims to support and simplify the work of 110,000 farms spread over 1.5 million hectares in more than 100 countries globally via its proprietary platform. It works with more than 70 top-tier players, such as leading agri-food firms and machinery manufacturing groups, and it hopes to advance these initiatives internationally.

CEO of xFarm, Matteo Vanotti said: “The strength of xFarm Technologies is its highly innovative nature, which allows us to manage the complex needs of farmers, machinery manufacturers and all the stakeholders in the supply chain through digitalisation. Now more than ever it is crucial for farms to simplify processes and make them more efficient to meet growing challenges.”

xFarm will also utilise the capital in developing more effective solutions and support farmers in adapting to climate change.

Alexander Schlaepfer, partner at Swisscom Ventures and new member of xFarm’s board said: “Digital platforms combined with IoT are fundamentally altering farming. The next wave of adoption is creating the foundation for producing more sustainably while coping with the challenges of climate change. We were captivated by the profound domain expertise of the founding team, impressed by the quality of customers in the food and agri-machinery sectors that have quickly integrated the product into their operations, and are excited to partner with the company.”