Programme “Sustainable Soy in the Cerrado” announces selected startups

The Programme “Sustainable Soy in the Cerrado” (Programa Soja Sustentável no Cerrado, in Portuguese) has selected five agtechs in its 3rd cycle, which focuses on fostering entrepreneurship and innovation for deforestation-free production.

Among 54 registered startups, the initiative included the agtechs Adapta, Busca Terra, Connect Farm, Green Bug and Maneje Bem, which offer solutions for forest regeneration, carbon market, environmental impact mitigation, compliance and monitoring.

These companies join with ten members of the 1st and 2nd cycles to compose an integrated portfolio in order to strengthen a sustainable soy supply chain. The goal is attracts producers to adopt deforestation free and recovering native vegetation parameters.

The program has an initial resource of approximately R$2.2 million to support startups and results from a partnership between Land Innovation Fund and AgTech Garage, with strategic support from EMBRAPII – Brazilian Industrial Research and Innovation Company.

The winners were chosen based on criteria such as innovation, maturity and business model, team profile, environmental impact and technical and economic feasibility.

“We believe the finalists can contribute to generating value for forest preservation and stimulating actions and financial mechanisms favorable to environmental conservation”, says José Tomé, co-founder and CEO of AgTech Garage.

Adapta is focused on regenerative agriculture with a feasibility plan, training, monitoring and financial benefit quantification (tokenization). Busca Terra offers an integrated data management tool and payment for environmental services.

Connect Farm provides data intelligence platform for monitoring areas of vegetation, pastures and cultivation. GreenBug presents an IoT device for detecting and classifying sounds of forests, with geostatistical analysis and guidance for rural managers.

In turn, Maneje Bem has an application for environmental monitoring, land and water usage with technical assistance accessible to producers and management of environmental data.

These five startups are added to the portfolio made up of ten other startups – Agrorobótica, AgTrace, BrainAg, BrCarbon, Forestmatic, SafeTrace, SciCrop, Plantem, Quiron, One and a half degrees – and offer solutions to face some environmental conservation and restoration demands.