Description of the portfolio company
EarthOptics is a soil measurement and mapping company that is enabling the growth of sustainable farming practices on a meaningful scale. Through the combination of sensors and machine learning technology, EarthOptics is able to dramatically lower the costs and improve the quality of soil testing, while creating valuable insights for its customers. The measurements provided by EarthOptics help farmers and ranchers make data-driven decisions about their land, while allowing carbon credit project-developers to accurately baseline millions of acres.
Investment rationale
Soil-health is foundational to feeding the planet sustainably. Providing accurate, high quality soil insights at scale enables reduction in fertilizer application (one of the largest drivers of emissions on the farm), optimization of tillage practises (reduces fuel use, increases yield, lowers soil erosion) and increasing penetration of carbon farming at the scale required for carbon credit programs. In addition, soil analysis is core to farmers’ business and usually involves sending soil samples to labs which is costly and time consuming. EarthOptics is able to provide growers with high quality soil insights at scale by using their next-generation soil-sensing technologies.