Terramera spinout enrichAg officially launched, raises $6M seed round

• Canadian crop protection startup Terameter has launched a new subsidiary, enrichAg, which uses new sensing technology to make soil analysis faster and easier for farmers.
• At One Ventures led a $6 million seed round to commercialize enrichAg’s soil testing and analysis platform.
• Allowing farmers and agronomists to test and analyze their own soil can open the way to huge savings on fertilizers, as well as a greater chance to participate in carbon markets and generate additional income.

How it works:

Once commercialized, enrichSoil will allow farmers and agronomists to conduct their own soil tests for nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and carbon levels.

The enrichSoil platform is powered by Terramera’s Intelligence Engine, originally launched to help farmers measure soil carbon. The enrichAg stack also uses emerging sensing technologies, computational chemistry and machine learning.

Together, these elements allow the user to collect data “down to the molecular level with a resolution a million times higher,” said Terramera’s CEO. Narrated by Karn Manhas AFN.

The sensor can go directly into the field. Digital maps show results by field and over time.

He compares soil testing to cell phone cameras over the years. We’ve evolved from acceptable, albeit low-resolution, flip phone images to sophisticated smartphone images that can be as detailed as nose hairs.

“It’s a breakthrough in hardware, but an even bigger breakthrough in signal processing and software for computational chemistry and AI,” he says. “It allows us to take that signal and understand exactly what we’re looking at and track the molecules and the composition of that soil, from the carbon content to the nutrient content and everything else that’s in the soil.”

Digging beyond modern soil technologies

“Soil is probably the biggest challenge of our generation,” Manjas says. “If we can focus on soil health, we not only contribute to the economy, productivity, better nutrition, better sustainability, but also a climate solution. So the big thing for us was that we could really understand how we could track and measure what was going on in the soil.”

Manjas is hardly alone in this endeavor, given number of soil-focused startups There. He says enrichAg is different because it solves three key problems with existing soil analysis technology.

Accuracy

“It is generally accepted that we have a margin of error of 40 to 60%,” says Manchas about modern soil testing technologies. This makes it “very difficult to manage with such a large error”.

Low profitability makes it difficult, among other things, to use resources and sell on carbon markets.

The higher degree of testing accuracy that enrichAg claims allows farmers to better understand their soil and make informed decisions.

For example, a farmer may find that only part of a field needs a nitrogen boost and can apply the appropriate fertilizer. In theory, this also reduces costs for farmers.

Greater accuracy can also be very useful when it comes to measuring soil carbon and selling it in carbon markets.

Price

Current soil testing technologies are too expensive in many cases.

“A little more than half of the farmers in the U.S. will do a soil test, but they’ll only do it once every three to four years,” Manhas says. “And they’re just using it to get a general idea of ​​what, what, where, the birth rate. It’s just so expensive that they can’t use it to make accurate recommendations.”

speed

Right now, a farmer or agronomist needs to take a soil sample and send it to a lab.

“It takes weeks to do the process, months for them to come back,” Manjas says. “Then the results come in as pdf-like data, and you’ll have to figure out what to do with it.”

All of this makes it difficult for farmers to sample, obtain and analyze results, and make adjustments to operations and fertilizers in the same crop year.

“Instantaneous results have huge economic value for farmers to make decisions or use them to make decisions for that particular season,” he says.

However, he says the sample results are much easier to understand.

What’s next for enrichAg

enrichAg’s focus now is on commercialization, where the bulk of the seed funding will go. The company launched the alpha product through a partnership with “one of the world’s largest regenerative agriculture networks.”

A beta version of the product is currently under development, with a limited commercial launch planned for 2023.

“EnrichAg will focus on the use of laser this technology is specifically for understanding actions that provide an economic return for the farmer,” Manhas says. “The funds will be used to launch and market this highly accurate. a proprietary soil analysis platform to measure soil composition including NPK and carbon and more.”

Meanwhile, the company plans to close the current round to a maximum of $15 million. The tour is scheduled to close this year.