Agroop

https://www.startus.cc/company/agroop

Taguspark, Ed. Núcleo Central, Office 240

2740-122 Oeiras, Lisboa

Portugal

Website

http://www.facebook.com/Agroop

https://twitter.com/agrooproject

General information:

According to UNFPA in 2050 the world population will reach 9 billion, therefore an increase of food requirements of 70% is expected in the next 35 years. Farming sector will be under pressure to provide enough food for such a large population. Additionally according to UNFAO global warming will have a huge impact on the water resources available for food production, making water an ever more precious resource. Bearing in mind this factors, farmers will have to increase the quantity of their production while at the same time reducing the demands on the usage of water and energy resources.

Agroop aims to democratize the access to technology in the agricultural sector. Agroop's main mission is to build an holistic system that works as a support for decision-making and helps farmers pinpoint several agronomic, technical and meteorological indicators that can contribute heavily to cost reduction and to an increase in productivity, by improving operational procedures as well as saving essential resources, like water and energy.

Company information:

Company type:

Startup

Industry:

IT - Hardware, IT - SaaS, IT - Software Development

Founded when:

Friday, 8 August, 2014

Startup stage:

Development and Testing stage

Funding needs:

Series A funding

Types of jobs in the company:

Business Development, Customer Support, Design / UX, IT - Backend, IT - Frontend, IT - Software Dev, IT - Web, Management / Leadership

Total numbers of employees:

Products and Services:

Agroop Operational & Stoock

Product category:

Software as a service

Agroop solution is built upon two integrated products, both with what we believe is high scalability and internationalization potential: “Agroop Operational” and “Stoock”.

“Agroop Operational” is a multi-device farm management platform that allows users to calculate intuitively and assertively, the cost of production allowing detailed and decoded analysis.

“Stoock” is an off-the-shelf multi sensor which replaces the traditional weather station + probe and allows its users to monitor and optimize the water needs of crops, minimizing water waste.

Impressions:

FAQ:

Can I see a video presentation of Agroop?

Yes, you can: https://youtu.be/vEYOo1UE1P4

Is Agroop open for investment?

Yes. Please contact us for more information.

How is your solution different to an existing one? What is your USP?

There are management and agricultural monitoring solutions on the market. However our solution is different because it agglomerate these two variants of business (Management and monitoring) in a single interface and system. In turn, Stoock is a piece of hardware that replaces the current weather stations and soil moisture probes, by a fraction of the price. More importantly, this equipment can be installed by the user, minimizing operational costs and allowing a greater scalability of our system.

How do or will you make money? How much could you make in the upcoming two years?

“Agroop Operational” will be sold under a Software as a Service (SaaS) model with an average monthly fee of 35.65€ (excl. VAT), composed of 4 plans: “Stoock” will be sold at 1.400€ + VAT and will functionally complement “Agroop Operational” while contributing to the increase of the average price point. That occurs because only the Premium Plan will allow the integration with “Stoock” sensors. According to our projections we anticipate invoice about 1.5 million euros in the next two years.

How do you plan to grow your business? What are the concrete steps for the next years?

We are creating a network of partners, including cooperatives, producer associations and other consulting companies. We are developing an interface that will be used by these agents, allowing them to support their associated farmers. This strategy will enable us to minimize our sales effort. We are doing prospection in some markets, namely Spain, Brazil and Sweden, where we already have partners. We are also inserting the multi-lingual concept in our system. Next year we will start selling our solution in the spanish market and in 2018 we will conquer Sweden and other markets also on analysis.

How much money do you want to raise and what do you want to achieve with it?

Agroop will need approximately € 600,000 to commercially boost the project internationally, to industrially produce the stoock and to develop other products and features that will complement the products that we already have on the market. We anticipate that about 44% of this amount will be invested in marketing and sales, 25% in the industrial production of stoock, 31% in R&D and other operational costs.

Which market are you targeting?

Agroop has in its international pipeline 8 target markets: Portugal, Spain, France, Germany, Ireland, Norway, Sweden and Brazil. Spain, due to its geographic and cultural proximity with Portugal, will be the preferential market to expand internationally, followed by Sweden, where we currently have partners. Brazil, despite its huge potential, shall be the last market within our five-year roadmap due to its current economic context.

How attractive is this market (size and growth)?

Agroop's target customers are 46 year old and younger farmers who dedicate themselves full-time to agriculture. We believe that these farmers are more inclined to use new technologies and are aware of the importance and impact of efficient and assertive management. Using EUROSTAT and IBGD data, we estimate that in these 8 countries, there are about 8 million farmers within that category and the total market volume is about 5.5 billion euros. Our initial focus lies on the European market where the average farm is about 14,4 ha (Agroop's target farm size) and where trade barriers are low.

Who are your main competitors?

Besides Wisecrop (another Portuguese startup), we did not identify any direct competitors with an integrated management and monitor solution. However, when breaking down each one of Agroop's products, “Agroop Operational” faces competiton from ISAGRI, AgroGestão, Agrivi and AgSquared. And “Stoock’s”, main competitors are CropX, Farmdog and Hidrosoph. “Agroop Operational” and “Stoock” have individually strong selling points, but we have found them to be uniquely strong when both solutions are integrated in a single interface and system.

How much capital have you raised in convertible notes or equity investments? From whom?

We raised until this moment approximately € 180k: Aprox. 10k in August 2014 when the company was officially created. Aprox. 75k in August 2015 when Agroop finished its first crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs (https://www.seedrs.com/agroop). Aprox. 95.5k in August 2016 when Agroop finished its second crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs (https://www.seedrs.com/agroop1).

Anything else?

Agroop was the first and until now the only portuguese startup which successfully completed two equity crowdfunding campaigns on Seedrs. 186 investors from 20 different nationalities invested on us. Cristina Fonseca, co-founder of Talkdesk and Johan Gustafsson, the swedish co-founder of Hattrick (https://www.hattrick.org) are two of them.