Scaling AgTech Across Europe: Lessons From eAgronom CEO Robin Saluoks

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[00:01:21] What happens when the future of farming is being shaped by someone who grew up living it? Well on today's episode of Startup Builders and Backers, I'm joined by the CEO of a company called eAgronom. And this is one of those conversations that quickly moves from a startup story into something much bigger.

[00:01:43] Because yes, this is a company that is using technology to help farmers, help them manage land, track soil carbon and create new revenue streams. But underneath all of that is a much more human story about family, farming and building technology that actually solves a real problem. Now Robin comes from a farming family who built his first farm management software to help his father.

[00:02:09] And then watched that idea grow into a platform now serving thousands of farmers across Europe. But what I love about this conversation is it doesn't treat agriculture like an abstract sustainability talking point. It gets right into the friction, the data headaches, the economic realities and why farmers do not need more dashboards and more admin. They need tools that quietly do some of the heavy lifting for them.

[00:02:37] So for me, this is a fascinating conversation that covers everything from soil carbon, regenerative farming and why some of the biggest companies in the world are suddenly paying much closer attention to what is happening on farms. And if you've ever wondered how sustainability becomes something more measurable, practical and profitable, hopefully this conversation will give you something to think about and take away.

[00:03:02] So whether you are a founder, an investor or a farmer or just someone curious about where climate innovation meets real world execution, stick around. There's a lot of value in this one. But enough for me. Let me introduce you to Robin Saluoks right now. Can you tell everyone listening a little about who you are and what you do? Hi, glad to be here. I'm Robin. I'm the CEO and founder of eAgronom. And my background is that I'm coming from the farming family.

[00:03:30] So my father is a farmer and his father was a farmer and so on. So I went to study computer science. And then back in 2016, my father needed a tool to manage the family farm. I ended up building something initially only for us. And then other farmers saw this and wanted to start using it as well. And that's how eAcronome got started.

[00:03:52] Now, in the beginning, it was really a farm management tool, but part of it was something that we called a hummus balance calculator. So hummus is the richest part of the soil and half of this is carbon. And back in 2016, there was no farmer beside my farmer or beside my father asking for this hummus balance calculator. But we still wanted to build it because we wanted to communicate to farmers about the importance of soil health.

[00:04:22] And then fast forward to 2020, when we had already quite some farmers on the platform. So today we have 3500 farmers managing 2.5 million hectares. Back then we had less, but we had already enough to think about next steps. How can we bring more value to farmers?

[00:04:41] And at the same time, some big corporates started approaching us saying that, hey, you have done quite a lot to reduce your emissions or that they have done a lot to reduce their emissions and they now want to compensate for the remaining ones. And because we were vocal about soil carbon, they approached us. And that's how eAcronome carbon program got started. Wow, there is so much to unpack there. Such an inspiring story. So you grew up on a farm.

[00:05:08] You built your first farm management software at 17. And I'm curious, when you look at agriculture today, it's in the blood and it's in the DNA of your entire family there. What is it that still feels broken? And why has it taken so long for technology to gain real traction in this space, do you think? Yeah, well, I guess one of the biggest challenges is that we are dealing with the real nature. So we're not automating bits and bytes.

[00:05:34] We are actually automating the real world environment and everything is changing in the farm. There are a lot of exceptions and so on. So it's obviously difficult to automate this. And the biggest challenge, I would say, in general, in this industry is the data collection. So how to make sure that farmers wouldn't need to sit behind the computer and typing everything to the computer?

[00:06:02] They would like to be behind the wheels, looking at the fields, analyzing, thinking what to do. They don't want to deal with reporting. And that's something that we put a lot of effort into. And when we look at agriculture, it is often described as one of the least digitized industries. Some of that is changing. I'm reading more and more about agri-tech.

[00:06:28] But what has changed recently that is finally making things like AI, satellite data, real-time monitoring so viable and at scale for farmers who already are limited with budget, etc.? What's changing here? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Well, obviously, I guess all of us have noticed the developments in the AI and technology and so on. And that's one side of the story.

[00:06:53] But I guess less noticed part of the story is that, or less obvious perhaps, is that soil carbon sequestration is now valued by some companies. Yeah.

[00:07:08] And because it is valued by companies and these companies want the proof that carbon has been stored in the soil and want to have proper calculations behind it and so on, that is accelerating also the digitalization of farming. Because you need to get the data automatically to produce carbon credits in the farm and from the soil. So basically, the idea that there are some companies who are thinking that, hey, look, we all produce some waste.

[00:07:37] I produce some waste, you produce some waste. And, well, we try to minimize this, but there is some leftover, like some plastic bags I have over here or plastic bottles or something else. And what we do with this, we work with waste management companies who ideally recycle this waste. And these big corporations now have acknowledged that CO2 is also waste or garbage.

[00:08:06] And it doesn't smell or you cannot see it with your eyes. So that's why we think about it differently. But it's physically there and it's influencing our lives. So now those corporations are looking around, okay, who could be this kind of waste management company? Who could help us? And farming and regenerative farming is a way to recycle the CO2 emissions into productive soil.

[00:08:34] A bit like recycling the plastic into sunglasses. Regenerative farming is recycling CO2 emissions into soil. And this narrative and that kind of demand for regenerative farming and where you also track the sequestration to prove that it actually happened. This, I think, is the biggest boost to the digitalization of agriculture right now.

[00:08:58] And obviously technological advancements make it more easy and even more interesting and attractive and et cetera. But I would say this kind of soil carbon narrative change is the biggest impact right now. And measuring soil carbon and agricultural emissions for people listening outside of that space, it might sound incredibly straightforward in theory, but it is also incredibly complex in practice.

[00:09:27] So where do most attempts fall short and what makes this such a difficult data problem to solve? How it works is usually measure and model approaches. Yeah. Basically, every five years you're taking measurements. So you're measuring actually physical soil carbon. And then on an annual basis, you also want to do reporting. And that's where the soil models are coming in.

[00:09:53] And these are the soil models that have been calibrated and validated based on hundreds of soil studies in different regions where we operate. And then independent parties have to review this and say that everything is okay. And these are really good soil models. But the problem is that if you have bad data going in, these soil models also give you wrong results.

[00:10:16] And it would be, I don't know, like if you say that you are in a calorie deficit and you eat super healthy, but actually you are eating all the burgers and everything, then well, the model will give you the wrong result. And then you will say that you are losing the weight while actually you are gaining weight. The same thing is with soil, right? And that's what makes the data collection super, super important. Now, the question is how to get this data. Okay.

[00:10:46] It's easy to add data with the mobile app, for example. But the problem is that it's even easier not to do it. So most of the farmers, well, would kind of forget about this and would focus on the farming. And then in the end of season, see that, okay, I have to put a lot of data in manually. It has to be automated. So then satellites, this is another emerging technology and that's quite good. But, and it can capture what crop is growing.

[00:11:12] It can capture sometimes the dillish events, but there are also some things that it cannot capture. For example, if you have three cultivation events in one week, then satellite doesn't notice it because it goes perhaps once a week only or when there are clouds, it might be even more difficult or fertilization events or crop protection events. So these are something that satellites are not noticing. Now, new tractors, you can get data automatically from there as well.

[00:11:39] But the problem is that most of our farmers and in Europe, average farmer is a smaller kind of farmer. So most of our farmers do not have full fleet of modern enough tractors and they cannot send data automatically. So the question is then how to upgrade those old tractors and how to get data automatically from there as well.

[00:12:03] So you're currently supporting thousands of farmers and farmers are not techies by their very nature and they will expect things to just work. So I'm curious, how do you introduce new technology without adding friction or frustration or disrupting the day to day realities farmers already deal with? Because I would imagine that they'd be slightly impatient with adding new tech if it brings them problems. So how do you deal with that friction there?

[00:12:31] So if we speak about technology from the kind of software and hardware perspective, and then our strategy over there is to make it seamless. Yeah. So the farmers even don't notice it. And then, but there is another part that you can also consider new technology. You also promote some new farming practices that are then storing more carbon in the soil and how to get farmers to change practices.

[00:13:00] Did you do something differently from one, something that they had done in the past? And we were thinking, okay, who is really good in influencing farmers practice decisions? And we saw that fertilizer companies and chemical companies are doing really good job. So they are always influencing farmers very well to apply certain practices, certain products and certain practices. And how they operate. So basically we mimic what they are doing.

[00:13:29] Number one, we have local partners, local resellers, and these are companies who already have tens of years of relationships with farmers. So they have all the trust already. Number two, we have our own local small team who is not working directly with farmers, but is working with the resellers, making sure that it's easy for resellers to introduce our offerings.

[00:13:51] And number three, in every country where we operate, we set up field trials and build events around this so that farmers can see in their own neighborhood what is working and what is not working. So basically, and chemical companies and fertilizer companies, I mean, fertilizers are super important. Without them, we would be starving. So like saying nothing bad about them, but they have been really successful in influencing farmers to buy their products.

[00:14:20] So mimicking what they are doing has been our strategy as well. And there is a lot of discussion around carbon credits in agriculture at the moment. So from your perspective, how do you ensure those credits are credible, measurable and actually beneficial to farmers rather than just adding another layer of complexity? You make it sound incredibly easy, but tell me a little bit more about how you do that. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:14:45] So first of all, what we like about carbon credits and what it has to be and stay is that that would be that it's a way for farmers to provide the service for the society. And as I told you before, the services recycling CO2 emissions into soil. And it's not additional regulation or something that farmer has to do.

[00:15:11] It's optional thing for farmer that, hey, society or certain company wants to buy this service from you. Are you willing to provide the service? And then farmer can evaluate, okay, this is what they need to do. And that's kind of what it costs us. And that's how much work I need to do. And that's how much I will get paid. So does it make sense for me or not? So that's the big picture. Now going into details, the same things that I mentioned before.

[00:15:37] Number one, the data collection, it has to be fully automated. And that's important from one side for the credibility of the carbon program. But on the other side also for scalability, because farmers don't want to continue adding everything, typing everything in. So the data has to come automatically.

[00:15:58] And then the other part is also the practice promotion, because in the end, the carbon only stays in the soil if farmers continue with the practices. And we have all kind of buffer zones over there, ensuring that if some farmers stop the practices, then, well, there is a buffer pool or insurance pool that covers this. But the goal is that as many farmers as possible would continue with those practices.

[00:16:25] And to make that reality, we have to actually show the farmers how these practices benefit them in the long run. And that they would really understand that it's not only the short term transaction, but the carbon income helps to cover the cost. But they will actually get benefits in the long run from those practices as well. And I suspect there will be some farmers listening, hearing about you guys for the first time, thinking this sounds great.

[00:16:52] But in the past, they may have been burned by many sustainability initiatives that promised a lot, but struggled to balance environmental goals with economic realities. It's a fine balance there. So what have you learned about helping farmers adopt regenerative practices while still improving profitability? I would imagine that is the big attraction there. So tell me more about that. Mm hmm. That's super important. Yeah. What we suggest usually to farmers is to start small.

[00:17:22] So find something that works for you and then scale it up. And obviously, that's also why in every country we have those local team of experts as well who are educating our resellers so that they can then go and educate farmers. It's a big decision to change your practices, considering that farmers can only try once a year. And one farmer who was in his 50s told me that he has only 11 harvests left.

[00:17:54] So trying it out small first and then scaling it up, I think makes most sense. And also choosing the right partner. You want to choose a partner who already has experience and who can help you to avoid some of the mistakes. If we look ahead, as more farms inevitably become more data driven, are there any new risks or unintended consequences that they should be thinking about?

[00:18:22] Whether that's data ownership, dependency on platforms, changing power dynamics in agriculture, anything you're seeing there? Any concerns we can lay to rest today? Yeah, well, data ownership is super crucial. So whenever you would work with some company, I would recommend to ensure that you as a farmer stay as an owner of the data so that you're not giving the data away, but you actually own the data.

[00:18:49] And well, I think on the other side, technology can provide a lot of flexibility. So obviously, these technologies, they can enable easy data transfer from farmers to all those different stakeholders, might it be a bank or a food company or a government representative or insurance or something else. But the key thing is that you as a farmer stay in control so that the data would not go just flying around without your approval.

[00:19:20] And you said you serve over three and a half thousand farmers there at the moment. I'm curious, where are they all located? Or are they all in Europe? Are they scattered all over? So those 3,500 farmers are based in Europe. Our biggest markets are Poland, Spain, Romania, Ukraine, Baltics, Sweden, just to name a few. And we also have a small pilot actually in East Africa that's beyond this and mainly in Rwanda.

[00:19:50] And over there, we don't add any new farmers right now. We just want to set up all the processes and probably we will start scaling over there in a few years. But over there, we have about 100,000 hectares. But every landowner or let's say farmer has one hectare. So in a way, we have over there 100,000 farmers as well. But the size of the farmer is much smaller. So it's not comparable with the European farmers.

[00:20:18] Wow. And we do have an international audience. So farmers listening anywhere in the world, they want to connect with you, your team, learn more about what you're doing here and ask any questions we didn't cover today. Where would you like me to point everyone? Yeah, I guess eacronom.com is the best place to find us. Awesome. Well, I will add a link there to the show notes. So I urge people listening to go over to Tech Talks Network. Check out the blog post associated with this.

[00:20:46] I'll put links and videos and everything to that. And I always say technology works best when it brings people together. But I love how you had this idea at such a young age of enabling farmers to achieve sustainability goals while supporting farmers in generating additional revenue as well. That is the big ROI. So I'd love to hear from farmers listening to see what they think. But best of luck on your journey. I'd love to stay in touch with you and see how this unfolds. But thank you for sharing your story today. Thank you.

[00:21:14] One of the things I really enjoyed about this conversation with Robin today is in tech, we spend a lot of time talking about transformation, automation and data driven decision making. But farming has a way of humbling all of that. We're not talking about optimizing clicks or moving pixels around a screen. You're dealing with mother nature. You're dealing with soil, weather, timing, risk and livelihoods. And this is probably why this story feels so refreshing.

[00:21:41] It's technology with its boots on and its sleeves rolled up. And what stood out to me is Robin is not trying to force farmers into someone else's vision of innovation because he's built it around the realities that they're already facing. And respecting their time, their experience and the fact that their trust has to be earned. And this matters because any sustainability plan that ignores profitability or everyday practicality of running a farm is probably dead on arrival.

[00:22:12] And also think there's a much bigger lesson here for founders and backers alike. The best startup ideas often do not begin with a pitch deck. They begin with a real problem. One that's been seen up close by someone who understands it deeply enough to build something useful. And this is exactly what happened here.

[00:22:33] And as agriculture becomes more connected, more measurable and more central to climate conversations, the stakes here only get higher because there will be questions around data ownership, farmer control and long term incentives. These things are only going to become more important. But after listening today, I'd love to know what you thought. Are we finally seeing technology meet farmers where they are?

[00:22:56] Or are there still many people trying to reinvent agriculture without understanding the field that they're standing in? As always, techtalksnetwork.com. Take a look around. I will include all the links on the blog post associated with this episode. But that's it for today. So thank you for listening as always. And I'll speak to you all again very soon. Bye for now.