Pioneering sustainable precision farming
In a world where agriculture stands on the threshold of transformation, the AgTech sector is ready for remarkable growth, projected to achieve a CAGR of 10% by 2030. Amid the challenges of a growing global population and escalating environmental concerns, the demand for innovative solutions in agriculture is more pressing than ever before. Highlighting this, the precision fertilizer application technology market recorded a staggering USD 7 billion valuation in 2022, signaling the imperative for pioneering methodologies.
Digit Soil envisions a future where agricultural precision and sustainability intertwine seamlessly. With their pioneering technology, they aim to measure soil enzyme activity, the heartbeat of soil health. Through the innovative Digit Soil device, farmers gain swift insights into soil conditions, complemented by tailored fertilization guidance from their app, which ingeniously blends soil data with information on available farmyard manure.
In partnership with Axelra, DigitSoil's potential was supercharged. Through co-creation, we introduced a digital product with a superior user experience. Furthermore, the business model has been meticulously refined to ensure sustainable growth, while a comprehensive venture building plan has been mapped for future expansion.
«Our collaboration with Axelra has been a game-changer. The speed at which we've been able to develop our digital product and enhance our business model is astonishing. Axelra's expertise drove our venture forward, making it appealing to our future customers and potential investors.»
Hélène Iven, CEO Digit Soil
- App prototype to validate user needs
- User Experience Design
- Venture Building Plan, Product Roadmap, Pricing Model
- Technical Architecture to combine the hardware with the app
- Guidance and support with fundraising
Modern agriculture is faced with escalating challenges. Synthetic fertilizer use contributes to over 2% of global greenhouse emissions, straining both the environment and finances. With fertilizers making up a fifth of farmers' budgets, the demand for innovative, cost-efficient solutions intensifies in a swiftly expanding market.
Founded as an ETH spinoff, DigitSoil recognized the void in soil health comprehension. Merging technology with sustainability, they targeted a market ripe for disruption. Their pioneering solution quantifies soil enzyme activity, harnessing membranes and an in-house engineered machine to analyze data for intelligent fertilization recommendations.
Axelra's collaboration strengthened this concept, resulting in a tangible prototype that seamlessly integrates cutting-edge hardware and an intuitive software app, all while prioritizing a remarkable user experience and building a sustainable business model around it.
Leveraging insights from ideas and farmer interviews, along with meticulous and iterative prototyping, Digit Soil and Axelra collaboratively forged a pre-MVP. This high-fidelity, clickable design prototype vividly illustrates key user scenarios and app features. This advancement empowers farmers with a multitude of benefits, including:
- Instantaneous data imports,
- Comprehensive field overviews,
- Profound, field-centric soil management recommendations,
- Additional features such as capturing personal photos and notes, establishing a historical record.
This Pre-MVP has already undergone initial validations and garnered insights from farmers, setting the stage for piloting and further refining the digital product on the journey toward an MVP launch.
In addressing the profound challenge of precision farming, DigitSoil's collaboration with Axelra bore fruit in the form of a sustainable business model. Recognizing the massive potential of the market and the financial realities for farmers, they engineered a pricing structure that revolutionized the traditional approach. By monetizing data and implementing a subscription strategy, a dynamic and mutually beneficial arrangement was forged. This ensures that farmers, the venture itself, and potential investors all significantly gain from this innovative solution.
Watch the video podcast to learn about the synergy between DigitSoil's groundbreaking technology and Axelra's venture acceleration expertise. From ideation to validation, digital product enhancement to business modeling, get an inside look at how they merged their strengths to shape the future of sustainable agriculture.