Swiss food technology company xFarm Technologies develops an intelligent farmland management app to drive the digital transformation of agriculture | Top 100 Swiss Innovators
Image source: xFarm
Swiss food technology company xFarm Technologies (hereinafter referred to as xFarm) was founded in 2018. The company is committed to developing a one - stop application for smart farmland management. This application connects field sensors, agricultural machinery and other equipment to obtain raw information data of farmland. Through a decision - support system, it provides production decision - making suggestions to improve agricultural production efficiency.
xFarm was co - founded by Matteo Vanotti and Matteo Cunial. Matteo Vanotti is the CEO of the company. He holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and a master's degree in industrial engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. He once worked as a manager at Orbium and has more than a decade of work experience in the fintech field. Matteo Cunial is the Chief Revenue Officer of the company. He has a degree in civil engineering from the Polytechnic University of Milan. He once worked as a business analyst at McKinsey and participated in several digital strategy projects across Europe. xFarm has over 250 employees from 24 countries.
Image source: xFarm
The smart agriculture market has vast potential, and its market size is expected to reach $29.2 billion in 2027. However, different from industrial scenarios, the digitalization level of agriculture needs urgent improvement. Smart agriculture requires a large number of sensors, cameras and other equipment, and is also supported by network and data processing, resulting in relatively high overall costs. At the same time, agricultural data involves multiple factors such as soil, climate, crop growth and farming activities. Individual producers can hardly cover all aspects, and most software in the current market can hardly achieve systematic and integrated intelligent management effectively.
Image source: xFarm
xFarm has developed a smart farmland management application. This application can connect various sensors, mechanical equipment, agronomic models and satellites, providing real - time data and AI analysis. It helps farmers comprehensively grasp all information about farmland and farming in one - stop mode, adjust production strategies in a timely manner, improve farm production efficiency and increase final income.
xFarm's smart farmland management application supports comprehensive digital and precise management of farmland, crops, land information and various equipment. This application can digitally measure farmland, support the demarcation of field boundaries, measure the distance and area of plots, divide and label various farmlands according to different characteristics, and provide a complete and intuitive visualization interface to help users comprehensively grasp and manage farmland information. It can monitor crop growth through field sensors, plan crop rotation arrangements, and in combination with weather conditions, timely identify crop diseases and monitor pest infestations. It can analyze the physical and chemical properties of soil through field sensors, monitor rainfall, set thresholds for soil properties such as water and fertilizer for each farmland, and provide reference decision - making indicators for farming arrangements. It can be compatible with and manage the control programs of agricultural machinery from more than 50 manufacturers in one - stop mode, automatically record activity data such as the working time of agricultural machinery and task processing volume, monitor material consumption and operating costs, without the need to switch between different agricultural machinery programs. In addition, this application can also connect with agricultural satellites, calculate irrigation needs according to crops, climate and management goals, help users directly conduct remote control and achieve automatic irrigation.
In addition to one - stop digital management, xFarm's application can also provide analysis and decision - making support for the above data. This application can help users compare the income of different years, crops and fields, evaluate the effectiveness of investments, optimize cost allocation, formulate planting strategies, and improve productivity and income. It can continuously monitor and analyze the carbon dioxide emissions and water consumption of each plot, formulate optimization and environmental protection plans, and promote the sustainable development of agriculture. It can monitor the stability of the supply chain in real - time and achieve digital management of operations, contracts, approvals and other links. At the same time, it can timely check national and regional laws and regulations to ensure the compliance of farming and reduce the burden of systematic farmland management.
Statistics show that using xFarm's application can help reduce water consumption by 20% - 50%, pesticide use by 4% - 16%, fertilizer use by 5% - 12%, and reduce carbon dioxide equivalent emissions by 68 tons, which is equivalent to the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by 31,200 trees over their entire life cycle. Currently, xFarm's application has been used in more than 600,000 farms in over 100 countries/regions around the world, covering a total area of more than 9 million hectares and including more than 50 supply chains.
On April 12, 2019, xFarm completed a Series A financing of 3 million euros, led by United Ventures SGR SpA. In August 2022, it completed a Series B financing of 17 million euros, led by Swisscom Ventures. In October 2024, it completed a Series C financing of 36 million euros, led by the Impact Growth Fund under Partech. In the future, xFarm will continue to promote the sustainable development of agriculture and drive the digital transformation of agriculture.
xFarm Technologies is one of the companies on the "TOP 100 Swiss Startups" list in 2024. The "TOP 100 Swiss Startups" list brings together the best Swiss startups and growing technology innovation companies. It is the most internationally influential benchmark list in the Swiss technology innovation field. Since 2011, this list has selected 100 of the most innovative Swiss companies with the best market prospects and 25 Swiss growing companies with the greatest unicorn potential across Switzerland every year, covering fields such as life sciences, engineering machinery, robotics, information and communication, low - carbon technology, and food technology. The "TOP 100 Swiss Startups" and its series of brand activities are iconic events in the Swiss innovation ecosystem, representing the highest level of Swiss innovation and the forefront of international investment and financing.
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