AgroSustain – a rapidly growing UNIL spin-off – recently secured CHF 4.8 Million in their Series A funding round, followed by a FIT Tech Growth loan to the tune of CHF 500’000. The team has now kicked off their commercial rollout and have big plans for 2022. We sat down with Co-founder and CEO Dr Olga Dubey to find out more.

Describe your company in just a few words.
AgroSustain is a one-stop-shop solution for natural plant protection. We aim to reduce food waste and support sustainable food production by developing farm to fork solutions, like natural fungicides and coatings.

Why did you choose to set up your business in Switzerland?
I completed my doctorate at the University of Lausanne. When I discovered the natural compound that formed the basis of our products, I was so fortunate to be surrounded by a whole ecosystem of support.

Fellow SFNV member, Agroscope, were early adopters and have provided expertise and practical support from day one. They gave us access to labs and shared their expertise in running efficacy studies. Startup support through the BRIDGE, InnoTREK and Venture KIC programmes and coaching from Innosuisse has also been invaluable and helped us think through the best way to bring our product to market. Now we have our own offices in Renens and we’ve grown to a team of 12 people.

Tell us about your exciting news.
After working closely with partners to complete pilot trials over the last few years, we’ve now kicked off our commercial rollout. We’re already working with some amazing clients but we’re actively looking to connect with more growers, wholesalers and retailers who could benefit from our products. In addition to opportunities in the Swiss market, we are open for collaboration in the EU, LATAM and Africa.

The past few years have been difficult for many businesses. Have you been affected by the pandemic, for better or worse?
In early 2019, we’d just started our series A funding round. At that point we were focused on finding investors in the US and Germany who were interested in working with us to develop our natural fungicide. When the pandemic hit, we honestly thought it was all over.

But some potential clients were very positive about developing our coating solution for crops shelf-life extension. In fact, they were so eager to benefit from our product, they worked alongside us to conduct pilot trials in their premises, allowing us to monitor the crops lost and check how the coating was working, thus helping to come up with the final natural coating that protects over 15 types of fruits and vegetables. This collaboration was very immensely valuable and helped us to accelerate product development.

In reality, COVID helped us shift focus and move forward much faster than we would’ve done if we’d have stayed focused on the fungicide alone. It typically takes 5-7 years to get approvals in this space.

What have you learned along the way?
So much! We’ve learnt how to be agile. When you’re just setting out everything seems mission impossible. But I suppose this is always the case when you’re trying to develop something new. We’ve found that if you really listen to what your market is telling you, things start to fall into place.

One of our biggest learnings was around growing a team. Finding the right team is critical. It’s so important to find someone who shares your vision. As your team grows, you also need to learn to hire the right people who have complementary skills. Then you need to become a good manager and build a positive team culture. I was really fortunate to recruit an excellent management team that has a strong track record and really shares the vision I have for the business.

How would you like to support others in the Swiss food innovation ecosystem?
We’d be really interested in sharing our learnings with start-ups who are just setting up. We were really fortunate to benefit from the extraordinary support from other actors in the ecosystem. Now I’d like to share this knowledge to help others who are going through the same challenges. I’m actually speaking to the SFNV team about how we can use the Valley community to do this, alongside other members – watch this space!

What support could the SFNV community offer to aid collaboration in your sector?
We’re actively looking to grow our network and establish long-term relationships with clients – growers, wholesalers and retailers. We’d also be really interested in connecting with colleagues in larger businesses, like Firmenich and Givaudan to benefit from their experience in corporate strategy.

What’s next for Agrosustain?
This year, we’ll be focusing on our market extension. We’ll also be looking to raise another 5 million to accelerate the rollout. If you’re interested in joining us on this journey, I’d love to hear from you.

Connect with Olga to find out more or visit the Agrosustain website. 

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After securing CHF 13.2 million in one of Vaud’s largest funding rounds last year and ranking in the FoodTech 500, Ecorobotix is preparing to ramp up its European expansion in 2022. But as their list of international distributors grows, this dedicated B Corp continues to invest in strengthening the Swiss innovation ecosystem. 

Hello, tell us a bit about yourself. 
I’m Steve Tanner, CTO and co-founder of Ecorobotix. After growing up on a farm, I studied and worked at EPFL as research team lead in microelectronics. The idea of Ecorobotix came to me when I was thinking through how to use robotics and AI to improve agriculture’s environmental impact. 

What gets you out of bed in the morning?
Knowing that we have the technology to really make a difference – to improve farmers’ livelihoods by increasing profitability, to make it easier to produce healthier food, while reducing agriculture’s environmental impact.

What do you do at Ecorobotix in just a few words?
Ecorobotix creates smart spraying solutions for ultra-localized treatments of row crops, pastures and lawns and can be used all year long. Our technology is the most precise sprayer on the market and is developed on a plant-by-plant basis.  

As Chief Technical Officer, I’m in charge of product development and technical innovation by leading the research and development team – currently a team of 16 people. We develop everything in-house, including mechanics, fluidics, electronics, and software. I’m in charge of supervising all these developments, setting up collaborations with research partners to support our innovation, and protecting our intellectual property by filing patents.

What does your typical work day look like?
I tend to have three or four meetings every day. In the morning I could be discussing strategic decisions with the management team and coordinating R&D activities with my managers. Then, as the day progresses, I might spend some time talking with specific engineers to explore technical issues and provide guidance and support.

What key milestones did you hit in 2021?
Last year, we were working with ten machines alongside clients in Switzerland. We successfully raised CHF 13.2 million in our Series C funding round in June to help us keep up with demand. The recently launched Swiss Venture Capital report revealed that this actually put us in top ten funding rounds in Vaud Canton. 

What are your plans for Ecorobotix in 2022?
We’re focussing on expanding our distribution network. We currently have official distributors in France, Holland, Czech Republic, Italy and Germany. 

The funding secured last year will allow us to accelerate the high-volume series production of our ARA plant protection spraying machine and drive our European expansion. This year, we’ll have 70 machines ready to deploy. We’re already working on a few pilot projects in Greece and are very open to discussions with new partners. 

We’re also working closely with academic partners to measure the impact of our work. A recent field test on onions in France showed that our solutions allowed for a decrease in the quantity of chemical products used, a significant reduction of residue and phytotoxicity on crops and fewer losses. These echo the promising results we found in our previous trials on beans and sugar beet.

How do you collaborate and support others in the ecosystem?
We support the wider agtech and innovation ecosystem in a number of ways. We enjoy welcoming students for internships, which contributes to the number of qualified and experienced people in the Swiss job market. We also take part in agtech and foodtech events, boosting the food sector’s visibility and highlighting the vital role of sustainability in this industry.

We’re also currently in discussion with an EPFL lab to make our autonomous field robotic platform available to researchers developing projects in digital agriculture. Our first solar-powered platform is really well suited for autonomous robot missions for field tasks, such as data scouting, phenotyping, and agronomic operations at a feasibility stage. We’d like this platform to be an open project to foster academic activity in this field.

What support could the SFNV community offer to further your work?
We’re always looking to connect with partners who are interested in setting up pilot projects. We’re specifically looking for collaborations in plant disease detection and application of fertilizers.

Tell us something we might not know about your company.
I’ll tell you two! For each crop our solutions support, we need to take 100,000 photos! Based on these images, our robots start to recognise the crop and adapt how they react automatically. 

As a team, we’re also committed to walking the talk on sustainability. In addition to being certified as a B Corp, all our 40 employees take half a day off each year to get involved in a practical environmental project. Last year we helped to maintain a dry grassland. This year we’re open to suggestions! 

Connect with Steve or find out more on the Ecorobotix website. 

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