We define ourselves as an early-stage venture capital fund investing in B2B SaaS founders, from Seed to Series A across Europe, North America, and LatAm. While we are agnostic when it comes to niches and verticals, it’s undeniable that today’s biggest global challenges are particularly appealing to investors. Certainly, food access is one of them.
That’s why having companies like Auravant in our portfolio is a boost for everyone at the fund. It reminds us of the importance of supporting the leaders of tomorrow and being the believers behind the believers.
We recently sat down with Leandro Sabignoso, Auravant’s CEO, to understand why the industry behind humanity’s biggest need is still under-digitized and his plans to disrupt agriculture.
Agriculture, a Low Digitized Industry
It’s an absolute truth that human beings can’t survive without oxygen, food, or water. Then, how come agriculture remains one of the least digitized sectors? Luckily, it’s accelerating.
Agriculture is a cornerstone of the global economy, responsible for feeding the world’s population. However, it faces significant challenges, including climate change, resource scarcity, and the need for sustainable practices. According to different reports from sources like McKinsey or FAO, the industry must increase its productivity by 70% by 2050 to meet the demands of a growing population.
Digital transformation is critical in addressing these challenges. The global AgriTech market, which includes innovations like precision agriculture, IoT, AI, and blockchain, is projected to reach $22.5 billion by 2025. These technologies offer solutions to improve efficiency, reduce waste, and enhance food security. Despite this potential, agriculture remains one of the least digitized sectors, highlighting a substantial opportunity for innovation and growth.
“Digitalization has grown substantially in the last ten years, and more rapidly in the last five, with a boost in 2020 because of the pandemic,” claims Auravant’s CEO. When asked about the main drivers to push this transformation forward, Leandro Sabignoso points out “regenerative agriculture, AI, and robotization.”
These technologies promise to replace labor-intensive tasks, increase production efficiency, reduce gender barriers, and speed up regional convergence, in his opinion. “AI and robotization are going to replace many of the difficult, muscle-driven tasks that the sector has been identified with historically,” Leandro predicts. “Such a replacement will not only enable more efficiency in production but also lower gender barriers and speed up convergence between regions.“
So, there is opportunity. Now let’s see what Auravant has to offer.
Auravant: Welcome to the Future of Agriculture
Auravant’s mission is not a little one, but during our conversation with its CEO we realize why he is committed to an ambitious yet essential endeavor: “To create a world with food abundance, where everyone has equal access to food that is transparently and traceably produced, all while improving the environment,” Leandro explains.
The driver to do so is “helping farmers and agronomists adopt precision agriculture, providing the right technology for a more efficient and sustainable food production process,” says Auravant’s CEO.
What is the right technology then? “A platform that enables users to determine the optimal amount of resources, such as seeds, water or phytosanitary products, for each square meter of the field, thereby boosting crop yields and reducing contamination,” answers Sabignoso. In other words, maximizing the potential of each plot of land to grow more cereals, fruits, and vegetables with the support of technology.
In fact, Auravant is a much more complete SaaS. The product is designed to aggregate and process information from multiple valuable sources, such as machinery, sensors, satellites, field surveys… Moreover, Auravant’s open platform allows for the development of custom extensions on top of it which “can be tailored to address specific agricultural challenges,” Leandro notes. A solution every farmer or food producer needs to manage their entire production.
In this era of Data and Artificial Intelligence, this information is an extremely valuable asset for improving production. Take a real success story from Auravant as an example:
A major seed company significantly transformed their operational processes thanks to Auravant. Previously, each distributor conducted field surveys based on their criteria, and this information was not centrally stored. Auravant implemented a unified process for recording distributor visits to key clients at specific stages of crop development, consolidating all information on their platform.
“This process culminates in an automatic report sent to the end customer with tailored recommendations,” Leandro explains. “All information is consolidated on our platform, enabling the company to gain deep insights into how their seeds perform across different environments while adding value to their customers. This comprehensive data collection has allowed the company to generate new business insights and make more informed decisions,” Leandro adds.
So, previously to Auravant’s entry, inputs came inaccurate or timely. With Auravant in place, the user enjoys a digital system to track everything, managing information digitally and providing real-time critical feedback. This setup has resulted in significant cost savings and increased sales, both for the profit of the customer and farmer.
A SaaS From the Farm to the Fork
Auravant serves the entire agriculture value chain. Beyond individual farmers, the platform is used by input manufacturers to enhance their digital farming operations and by food manufacturers to ensure traceability and secure their supply chains.
This reveals that Auravant’s solution goes beyond food production and field operation, extending their value to commercial processes. A 360 Software as a Service that serves users “from the farm to the fork”, according to his CEO.
Auravant’s solutions address numerous issues. “Our technology is being used to produce more food with less inputs, reduce contamination, monitoring and certification of food production, reducing deforestation, tracking carbon and water footprint, improving sales and marketing of input manufacturers and their distributors and R&D processes“, Leandro elaborates.
GoHub Ventures Vision on Auravant
Auravant is one of our first investments in Latin American startups. We invested in the company at a seed stage as the opportunity combined a talented team, a highly technological solution and a global problem.
Auravant’s journey began with the development of a free platform version aimed at democratizing precision agriculture. As market demand grew, the company expanded its value proposition to include enterprises and partners. Today, Auravant has 115,000 users managing 18 million hectares across 130 countries, with over 100 integrations with partners including agronomic institutions, machinery, sensors, ERPs, and CRMs.
Looking ahead, Auravant plans to “put more effort into growing its marketplace of Extensions by integrating with other agtechs,” helping users find all the tools they need in one place. With a significant user base in the predominantly B2B agricultural sector, Auravant aims to facilitate connections among different actors in the agribusiness value chain while enhancing its digital agriculture platform.
Leandro and Nicolás, the founding team, met at ITBA and worked together at Telefónica for nine years before starting Auravant. Inspired by the book “Abundance,” they began exploring drone technology, eventually developing a variable-rate fertilization recommendation service for cereals based on multispectral aerial imagery. This innovation led them to an acceleration program for AgriTech, and the rest is history. “We wanted to start a startup together but were not sure about what to do, except something that had a positive impact on society,” Leandro recalls.
GoHub Ventures has been a crucial partner for Auravant, leading their 2021 funding round and providing ongoing support, according to the startup. “GoHub Ventures has been a key investor for us, we have partnered and exchanged valuable experiences with other companies in their portfolio. These actions, together with the constant feedback they provide us, have helped us grow faster,” Leandro shares.
Auravant is headquartered in Madrid, with offices in Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay, and a team of over 50 employees working tirelessly to drive the digital transformation of agriculture. The company is continuously hiring, with current openings for software developers, business developers, and customer success positions. Culture is built on core values of integrity, bravery, curiosity, tenacity, and teamwork, seeking individuals who exhibit a strong sense of ownership and prefer collaborative work.
With continued support from GoHub Ventures and a focus on innovation, Auravant is poised to lead the way in creating a sustainable and abundant food future.
