Access: The AgriTech entrepreneur pioneering innovative technology for sustainable farming
"Greenwashing is not going to fly." - Robin Saluoks
Hello reader,
Gobble gobble 🦃🎃 Welcome to the 10th edition of Access and happy Thanksgiving!
Liz is out of office today, celebrating with family & friends (and her dog Misha, who started the day off as a pumpkin…)
We decided to focus this week’s newsletter on a topic that I feel passionately about, and I know many of you share the same feelings and concerns.
Last week, 112 world leaders gathered for COP 27 to discuss climate change action. The summit concluded with a key decision to set up a loss and damage fund for those nations most vulnerable to the climate crisis. It’s a historic milestone for climate negotiations - although some say it’s too little, too late - particularly to strengthen our ability to adapt to the impacts of climate change. In addition to adaptation, climate experts argue that mitigation strategies are equally important.
With an increased focus on investment in AgriTech, our in-depth piece this week features Robin Saluoks, co-founder and CEO of eAgronom, a VC-backed start-up transforming agriculture to avoid climate catastrophe.
Hope you enjoy, and until next time -
Melissa
P.S. You might have heard about the accidental Thanksgiving invitation… it’s heartwarming to hear that seven years on Jamal Hinton and Wanda Dench have continued their Thanksgiving tradition!
“To answer all your questions, yes Thanksgiving year 7 is planned out! See you guys Thursday! 🦃🖤”
In case you missed it…
Last week’s newsletter included interviews with Brazil’s Neymar, composer Ludwig Göransson and actor Rainn Wilson.
Our In-Depth section featured Sherrese Clarke Soares, the ‘Content is Queen’ founder and CEO investing in entertainment intellectual content.
FEATURING:
Earlier this week, we asked you, ‘What (or who) are you thankful for?’. Below are some of our favourite responses 🙏
In-depth: Robin Saluoks is the climate entrepreneur transforming agriculture technology.
GIVING THANKS
“I’m thankful for my children’s love, my positively evolved mental health, my ability to create delicious food, my sense of humour for the darker times, my intuition. I’m thankful that I enjoy my job and for the life choices I have made… good and bad!”
- L.T
***
“I am grateful for the opportunity known as life; I am grateful for this moment, health, and the opportunity to contribute to changing this microcosm; at the very least, I am grateful for a warm bed and clean water; and most importantly, I am grateful for my family. We don't need a reminder to be grateful for everything we have. Life is a process, not a state.”
- M.M
***
“I'm thankful for good health of my loved ones and myself. I'm thankful for my parents who raised me by inserting proper values in my mind, and to my wife who provided me with the greatest gift of all - my little one. 🙂”
- N.I
***
“I'm thankful that I wake up most mornings with the capacity to take joy in my work, hobbies and my surroundings. I think sometimes we focus on whether external things make us happy and take for granted that we will actually have the mindset and body chemistry to feel the happiness.”
- D.P
***
“I’m thankful for health, happiness and loved ones - mostly my dogs who never leave my side and take up the bed space…”
- J.M
***
“I am thankful for the love and support I receive from my parents, who have spent their lives giving me everything I could possibly need in order to become a better person.
I am thankful that I work for a company who values me and places my mental health and well being above everything else.
And, I am thankful for my Moka Pot, which provides me with barista-quality coffee every morning ensuring that my colleagues never see just how grumpy I can be!”
- S.A
***
“I’m thankful for my partner, family, friends and (most importantly) the best team 💛 I’m grateful that I have the opportunity to seek new levels of comfort & warmth in blankets, fluffy socks and tea whilst doing a job that I enjoy!”
- M.L
***
“I am thankful for my colleagues, friends & family especially my 6yr old niece who taught me how to sing Old MacDonald had a farm in a Peppa Pig voice (you hold your nose and add an oink after every ee-ay ee-ay oh) which will be my party trick from now on.”
- S.D
IN-DEPTH
“Unlike a lot of technology that is developed to make our lives more convenient in one way or another, AgriTech will play a big role in ensuring our actual survival on planet earth.”
Robin Saluoks is the co-founder and CEO of eAgronom, an AgriTech start up transforming sustainable farming through harnessing technology to catalyse change in the fight against global warming. Estonia-based eAgronom closed a $7.4 million Series A round of funding earlier this year, backed by United Angels VC, Trind Ventures, TMT Investments, and Black Pearls VC. The company has raised a total of $12 million to date, including a $600,000 EU grant and has become a leader in the agricultural technology space in the Baltics and Poland.
“[My father] studied law and worked in business before going back to his roots in farming, with the aim of feeding the world profitably and sustainably through organic food.”
Saluoks comes from generations of farmers, but had aspirations to become a footballer as a child. He attributes his entrepreneurial spirit and the initial inspiration of eAgronom to his father. He was still reading Computer Science at University of Tartu when he founded eAgronom in 2016, and the first iteration of the software was to support his father to manage a busy harvest season. Saluoks partnered with computer scientist, Stenver Jerkku, and business veteran, Kristjan Luha, and now runs an international company with more than 40 employees across Europe. Often the youngest in the room, Saluoks was awarded the Young Entrepreneur of the Year accolade in 2018 and the AmCham EU Entrepreneur of the Year in 2019.
“If you had told a computer science graduate from the early noughties that their first boss would be a farmer, would they have laughed in your face? Most probably.”
With more private companies looking to offset residual emissions, it seems fitting to look to agriculture as an industry well-positioned to tackle climate change. Soils are the largest carbon sink after oceans, and sequestering carbon into agricultural soil would work well as part of the carbon offset ecosystem.
However, large-scale adoption of sustainable farming is conceptually exciting but more tricky in practice. Change needs to be profitable in the short-term so empowering farmers financially is fundamental. At its core, eAgronom provides farm management software, but their impact goes much further, working closely with the farming community to enable the adoption of sustainable practices and onboarding farmers to carbon programmes. Saluoks and eAgronom are pioneers in facilitating investment in sustainable farming practices, educating investors on the challenges and opportunities of the sector.
“We are at the start of a complete reimagining of how business should work for society, the environment, and the world as a whole.”
About eAgronom
Founded in Estonia in 2016, eAgronom is a leading agriculture technology firm, innovating farming to fight climate change. As a venture capital backed business, their focus is on transforming the voluntary carbon offset market and accelerating the transition to net-zero agriculture.
On being a young founder
“We are very aware we are living on borrowed time and that we have to be the generation to fight tooth and nail to avoid climate catastrophe.”
On the family business
“Growing up on a farm is unlike anything else. As my sense of freedom expanded seeing nature flourish around me in the open — I was also seeing how running the farm is taking away a lot from my father’s own freedoms. He would often disappear for days during the harvest season. And this is on top of the piling paperwork and bookkeeping that had to be accomplished… Coding the first version of eAgronom’s farm management software was a way to say thank you to him and free up some of his time so he could relax for once and spend quality time with his family.”
“I knew the academic principles of software programming and knew a lot about the business of farming — which I picked up from helping on my father’s farm — I had no knowledge and insight into building a scalable software product.”
On scaling
“Our business started as a straightforward farm management software company that then added a consultancy arm, then added carbon credit and green financing elements and so on. You should be constantly evaluating your proposition to see how you can most successfully expand, not just geographically, but also by widening your market with new offerings that future-proof your business and give you a competitive advantage.”
On being in the right place at the right time
“It was during the [Costa Rica] trip… I first met our Chief Commercial Officer Kristjan Luha… We played volleyball on the beach and became awesome friends. A year later he decided to join the team and became a late co-founder. Just goes to show the importance of chance meetings!”
On making mistakes
“After our initial overnight success in the home market we decided to expand to five foreign markets at the same time. We soon realized that we had taken on far too much and had to take a loss.”
“Cultural awareness is a trait that many ignore at their peril.”
On entering foreign markets
“While the incredible worldwide domination stories of a small number of tech giants (think of Uber, AirBnB and others) may lead some to believe new markets can be taken at will and customers will adapt to their way of thinking, this only works on rare occasions. For example, the industry we operate in, agriculture, is very difficult to penetrate for outsiders as trust, strong relationships and wariness of large corporations are common features across farming communities.”
On building relationships
“I like meeting farmers in other countries. Other people take holidays and go to the countryside to rest. But I do it during work. I visit farmers, have dinner with them and discuss how to make plans a reality.”
On managing a business
“When I started my first business at age 16, I had no idea what it meant to be a boss. Yes, I read a few management books, but it was very much learning by doing. However, I knew even back then that people were my most valuable asset.”
“A diverse workforce is not just about looks, but talent from varied backgrounds brings a wealth of different knowledge and experiences to the table, which will lead to better outcomes and a more equal world.”
On building a successful team
“The best way to ensure you don’t get ahead of yourself is to build a leadership team made up of people with different backgrounds, skills and personality traits… You need strategists, planners, analytical minds, dreamers and doers who come in all shapes and sizes. However, the important thing is that they share the same values. With such a team, business expansion is off to a flying start.”
On innovating farming
“From developments in indoor farming systems, smart sensors, soil testing, autonomous vehicles, alternative feed supplies, and soil sequestration to name but a few, our extremely traditional and low-tech industry is now a hotbed for innovation like no other.”
On corporate sustainability
“Even if your business is not closely aligned to addressing climate change, thinking green across all business functions is a must today… Out of sight cannot mean out of mind. Building a sustainable supply chain is time consuming, but that's nothing compared to retrofitting it later down the line. Just ask any large enterprise scrambling to reach NetZero and meet ESG goals.”
On the future of climate & AgriTech
“Brilliant solutions are being developed across the industry - from carbon sequestration and storage to green energy solutions - and not just on the technology side. We are also seeing a major integration of agroecological knowledge in the industry.”
On the private sector
“Soil is becoming a very precious commodity. The carbon offset market is expected to explode by a magnitude of 100 within the next eight years as pressure builds on private sector organizations to slash their carbon emissions”
On green loans
“I think that green loans will be more important. Most likely, after 5 years it will be impossible for farmers to even get a loan from the bank if they don’t have a clear path towards carbon neutrality.”
“Agricultural challenges vary immensely by geography [but] access to finance is a universal problem for farmers across the world.”
On agriculture as an investment
“The reason traditional financial institutions often shy away from the agricultural sector is the challenge of assessing risk in this unpredictable industry. Lack of data is a particular hindrance. In farming, no two years are the same, with weather, yields, prices, markets and regulations all contributing to uncertainty.”
On educating the investment community
“Agricultural carbon offsetting, that’s something that is very interesting for VCs… Investors are currently in this learning space – reading articles and just trying to understand what are the challenges, what questions to ask. There is interest, but it is still the beginning… As we talk to funds… we have a whole section for background reading materials. So we just keep compiling resources for them to get up to speed.”
“Our ambitious goal is to make fighting climate change the corporate world’s number one business priority, toppling shareholder profits off the first spot.”
Sources
Thanks for reading. If you don't want to miss our next newsletter, please add Access to your contact list. (Or move this email from "promotions" to your primary inbox.)