The agriculture industry is tasked with feeding a worldwide population of close to 8 billion. In recent years, it is facing numerous challenges, ranging from pandemic-related supply chain disruptions, Russia’s war and export blockade in the heavy grain-producing nation Ukraine, and shortages of crops resulting from extreme weather events caused by climate change. While these challenges have made it all the more important for producers to get the best out of every grain, Inarix, a French startup addresses the same.
The AI-powered crop analysis platform has nabbed €3.1 million in seed funding from French VCs Ankaa ventures, Newfund and Alliance for Impact, Spanish VC Label Investment, and US VC Resiliance and business angels Francis Nappez, CEO of Hectar.
US expansion plans
This new funding will allow Inarix to scale its technology platform to include a new host of crops, nearly doubling its crop analysis capabilities, and further grow its team, paving the way for expansion into new markets.
Currently, Inarix can analyse and determine the quality of two main crops – barley and soft wheat. Post this round, it can further develop its technology and extend its business to crops, including corn, soybeans, and coffee in the next 6 to 12 months. This is being done in conjunction with its US expansion, where corn and soybeans are the main crops.
“Essentially, what we are doing is transforming your smartphone into a pocket laboratory,” said Inarix founder and CEO Pierre Chapelle. “The feedback that we’ve gotten from our current customers shows that being able to get these types of results instantaneously, on-the-go, and without having to use large and complex machinery has been a gamechanger for them, so we’re excited to further build out the technology to make it more widely available to all agriculture players.”
“We believe Inarix has the potential to become the global reference in the billion dollar cereal quality control market, completely transforming the way the industry currently operates and disrupting the space,” said Alexandre Pierron-Darbonne from Label.
“Inarix is disrupting a sector as critical as crop and agricultural products analysis thanks to its AI-based technology,” said Ankaa Ventures’ Jonathan Cohen-Sabban. “The easy scalability of its solution allows all the players along the value chain, from farmers to end-clients, to reduce waste and guarantee the overall quality of agricultural products. We are proud to accompany the company in its ambition to improve food security and sustainability.”
Pierre-Jean Cobut from Newfund said, “As Inarix continues to expand the types of crops they can analyse, expanding to the U.S. market is the obvious next step in their commercialization efforts. We are looking forward to seeing their accelerated growth and supporting them in their journey.”
AI-based real-time crop analysis
Launched in 2018 by Pierre Chapelle in Paris, Inarix allows users to take a picture of their crops via their smartphones and get real-time crop qualification results. With these results, users can make informed decisions about the value of crops they have with them. Using AI to conduct crop analysis, Inarix empowers its users with a multicriteria measurement solution, replacing time-consuming actions from several machines with just one fast smartphone.
Inarix has already achieved success in France, where they have a user base consisting of more than 400 users. Its customer base includes many top players in the French cereal industry.
