Welcome to the 63rd Edition of Upstream Ag Professional!
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Index:
The Rise of Biologicals and Specialty Fertilizers: A Report on Agribusiness Strategy, Progress and Initiatives
Solinftec Seeking to Raise R$300 Million for 17% Equity
Sentera Aerial Weed Scout Update
Unlocking Demand for Regenerative: Insurance Hinderances
Rethinking the Financing of Agtech Innovation: Is Venture Capital the Best Path Forward?
Bridging the Gap: How Bio-Enabled Combination Solutions are Leading to the Future of Bio-Control
The Context Network's 2024 Biotech Traits Commercialized (BTC) Study Highlights and Analysis
Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos Enter a Room
Other Interesting Ag Articles (8 this week)
1. The Rise of Biologicals and Specialty Fertilizer: A Report on Agribusiness Strategy, Progress and Initiatives - Upstream Ag Professional
This week I went through the largest fertilizer and crop protection companies annual reports, quarterly earnings calls and historical announcements to aggregate key insights about each entities biological and specialty product strategy and business, including partnerships, investments, acquisitions, current revenues and targets and what they might do next.
The link above is an overview of not only all of the companies businesses, but an overview of what’s driving the interest in biostimulants, biocontrols and specialty fertilizer products. The article has more than 25 images to help illustrate what is happening in the world of biologicals.
Agribusiness Comparison Snapshots
Largest Bio-based and Specialty Acquisitions to Date
The Rising Demand for Bio-Based Crop Inputs and Specialty Nutrition Product: Four Key Market Drivers
Company Overviews
Yara
Mosaic
Nutrien
ICL
Corteva
BASF
Bayer
Syngenta
FMC
UPL
2. Solinftec Seeking to Raise R$300 Million for 17% Equity - The AgriBiz
Key Takeaways
Solinftec's Solix platform demonstrated significant reduction in herbicide usage, coupled with a 10% increase in biomass for crops like corn, soybeans, and wheat in 2024. The company is apparently in talks to raise ~$54 million at a $270 million pre-money valuation.
Solinftec’s Solix platform is allegedly on pace to sell more than $3 million worth, or more than 60 units, in 2024. The Solix system is an autonomous, solar-powered machine enabling a new approach to crop management in real-time. Solinftec has leaned into partnering with ag retailers for market access, which would allow retailers to provide novel services to farmers.
According to The AgriBiz article, Yvy Capital is in talks to invest R$300 million (Brazilian Real, converts to ~$54 million USD) in Solinftec. The article states that the investment has not been executed, but that it would value the company at ~$270 million USD pre-money.
According to Crunchbase, Solinftec has raised almost $147 million (USD) to date.
The investment angle is notable, but what stood out to me more was the revenue growth and sales of the Solix, their autonomous machine targeted at “living in the field.”
Last year, the startup grew almost 40%, delivering net revenue of approximately R$260 million. EBITDA, which was negative until 2022, reached R$86 million, with a margin of 33%.
Solinftec has a strong foothold in crops like sugar cane in Brazil, where significant portions of their revenue come from by being the essential operating system for a significant portion of the large operators in the region.
The bigger vision of Solinftec is to scale their autonomous Solix platform
Solix
The Solix is a solar-powered autonomous platform that is not only equipped with cameras to acquire data about the field but also equipped with the capability to spray— specifically weeds that it identifies within the crop and is equipped with the capabilities to lure, detect and eradicate insects autonomously using a specific light frequency. In the future, there are other potential use cases, from soil testing, to rock picking.
The Solix platform is a four-wheeled, solar panel equipped, fully autonomous system weighing in at a mere 1200 lbs, coming with sixteen RGB cameras for both navigation and data acquisition about the crop and RTK for sub-inch route accuracy.
The unit travels at around 1 mph, constantly. This means the machine can cover just under 100 acres per day, but that’s why they have a vision of it “living in the field.” Going at this speed and executing the data acquisition capabilities uses only about 1% of the energy the solar panel captures daily. Data is stored on the machine and processed on the edge before being sent to the cloud.
The system is powered by Solinftec’s ALICE software that drives information acquisition and analysis. ALICE could be considered the platform's lynchpin, as that runs the Solix unit and acts as the point of interaction for farmers, agronomists, and any party interacting with the unit via their phone or computer.
According to the article, the company is expecting to sell R$17 million, or $3.1 million USD. The anticipated costs of the units for 2024 were $50,000 USD which means at a constant price basis (eg: no discounts), Solinftec sold more than 60 units for 2024.
The primary sales route for these units was anticipated to be via ag retailers
The Solinftec Solix Go-to-Market Strategy and Ag Retail
The Solix is a new approach and vision for managing a crop. That means there is a need to consider the broader ecosystem to ensure engagement and alignment.