Suzano Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Suzano, has made a strategic investment in BemAgro, a leading Brazilian AgTech startup delivering Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions to optimize the agricultural cycle at every stage, from planting to harvesting.
The investment comes as part of a US$2.6 million funding round led by CNH, an equipment, technology, and services company in the agriculture and construction sectors. Suzano Ventures joins the round as a strategic investor alongside ATVOS, Brazil's second-largest producer of market ethanol, from sugarcane and its biomass.
Through the implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, BemAgro's digital agriculture solutions facilitate accurate and automated data processing to optimize crop planting, growth, and harvesting, therefore increasing operational performance and productivity, and reducing costs.
With a proven track record and strong results in enhancing agricultural processes within Brazil's sugarcane industry, this partnership will allow BemAgro's pioneering solutions to be transferred to eucalyptus farming. With more than 5 million hectares processed, the technology is widely used in Brazil, Latin America, and Asia. In sugarcane fields, it reduces herbicide and input application by an average of 70% by detecting weed infestation, and increases productivity by 7.5% detecting early-stage gaps.
With a two-year roadmap in place, Suzano Ventures will support BemAgro in refining and accelerating the application of its digital agriculture solutions for precision silviculture. More than just capital, Suzano Ventures will provide BemAgro with access to Suzano's farms and infrastructure, operations, and market and technical expertise, promoting the creation of new algorithms designed specifically for eucalyptus farming. This will, in turn, both validate the use of BemAgro's technologies within the eucalyptus industry and allow Suzano to advance its silviculture capabilities.
"Having seen the positive impact of BemAgro's offering in comparable industries, we are confident that the integration of its technologies within Suzano's silviculture operations will substantially increase efficiencies at all stages of the eucalyptus lifecycle," said Álvaro Gómez Rodríguez, Senior Manager at Suzano Ventures. "By facilitating more detailed monitoring of our seedlings, this technology will allow us to better assess the quality of growth at this critical stage, when the long-term health of the tree is mostly determined."
TAPPI
http://www.tappi.org/