Agro startups conquer space and customers outside the farms

Almost half of the startups in the agro sector in Brazil work in the segment known as “after the farm”, which includes trading platforms for products and storage and logistics services. Of 1,730 agtechs, 756 work in this area (44.4%).

Data are from Radar Agtech Brasil 2022, carried out by Embrapa (Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation), SP Ventures and Homo Ludens Research & Consulting.

Also included in this category are startups that develop innovative foods, such as hamburgers and plant-based milk, and urban planting companies.

One of them is BeGreen, which has been producing pesticide-free vegetables in cities for five years. “I wanted to create something that had a positive impact on the environment”, says CEO Giuliano Bittencourt.

In addition to supplying restaurants and markets, the startup maintains partnerships with companies and offers subscription plans for food boxes for the final consumer.

In five years, BeGreen received more than R$ 16 million in investments and, in the last 18 months, it went from three to eight farms across the country.

According to Shalon Silva de Souza Figueiredo, supervisor of environments for innovation at Embrapa’s business department, the growth in the number of startups helps to expand investment in innovation. “The agtechs bring the dynamism of the urban world, especially through new technologies, management and nanotechnology”, she says.

For the executive director of Abstartups (Brazilian Association of Startups), Luiz Othero, the sector has recently started to open up to innovation. “Agribusiness represents a third of the GDP and there is still much to be explored”, he says.

In comparison with the 2019 Radar Agtech Brasil, the segment that grew the most in percentage share was startups that work “on the farm” —from 397 (35%) to 705 (41.4%). This sector includes management, equipment and monitoring companies, among others.

It is in this field that BioGyn Soluções Entomlógicas operates, which works with the biological control of pests. Created in 2018, the company emerged from a project that was selected by the CEI/UFG (Entrepreneurship and Incubation Center of the Federal University of Goiás).

Agronomist Rízia da Silva Andrade, CEO and director of production at the company, says that, so far, R$ 760,000 have been invested in the business.

The biofactory is located in Goiânia and its main product is the pretiobug (Trichogramma pretiosum), wasps capable of attacking caterpillars in crops.

The company serves 10 to 15 customers a month in six states. “What motivates us is to observe a growing market for organic agriculture and food safety free of pesticides”, says Rízia.