German agritech startup CROP.ZONE secures $11m equity funding to expand to new international markets

Aachen-based integrated weed management startup CROP.ZONE announced it has secured $11m equity funding from existing shareholders (including Nufarm) and new financial investors (Demeter Investment Managers, Madaus Capital Partners). CROP.ZONE'S and investors' objectives for the $11 million investment are to open up new international markets and to develop additional agronomic treatment patterns for the crop.zone system.

The innovative CROP.ZONE system offers a natural organic alternative to non-selective synthetic herbicides such as Glyphosate or Diquat. As a highly productive and efficient solution, it is also used in desiccation applications and seedbed preparation. CROP.ZONE'S system is currently being successfully applied in Europe. It is available through crop.zone's partners Nufarm, Kamps de Wild and fenaco.

Dirk Vandenhirtz, CEO, CROP.ZONE: "Our focus is investing in people, production and scaling. CROP.ZONE will change agriculture by giving the industry a tool to work in a more sustainable and organic manner. Our ambition is to rethink the way we farm. We see the new investment as a great vote of confidence from our partners which shows a high level of trust in the path to a product ready for serial production. CROP.ZONE is now a mature technology that solves problems in international agriculture. It is easy for farmers to use, renders the use of harmful herbicides superfluous and enables a major contribution to CO2-reduced agriculture."

Intellectual property is the key when starting serial production of the system, which is already in use in Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. The company, which has more than 2,500 employees, serves major agricultural markets in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific and is headquartered in Melbourne, Australia.

Hildo Brilleman, Regional General Manager, Nufarm EuMEA: "This new funding round allows CROP.ZONE to expand their technology into new crops and segments. We are proud to be part of this journey to develop a sustainable potato desiccation and weed control offer for European farmers. Full commercialization of NUCROP will begin this year after a successful trial season in various European countries. As a key partner for commercialization, Nufarm will market the CROP.ZONE solution under its own brand NUCROP across our distribution partners for Ag inputs and farm equipment."

Cyrille Cabaret, Managing Partner, Demeter: "At Demeter Investment Managers, we believe there is an urgent need to find alternatives to chemical non-selective herbicides in agriculture. The electrical hybrid technology developed by CROP.ZONE offers farmers an effective, competitive, and organic solution for crop management. We are thrilled to accompany the CROP.ZONE team in this new development phase alongside renowned partners like Nufarm, LBBZ and Madaus Capital Partners."

Through its subsidiary RWTH Innovation, RWTH continues to support CROP.ZONE in the current financing round. CROP.ZONE had already been supported to get going by participating in the RWTH Innovation Sprint, a pre-seed funding mechanism by RWTH Innovation supported by the Exzellenz Start-up Center. NRW initiative of the NRW Ministry for Economic Affairs. The Innovation Sprint helped CROP.ZONE to build a prototype and thus validate the business case of their technology.

www.crop.zone