Rooteco, a Spanish biotech start-up, has secured €300,000 of seed funding in an initial round involving the Castilla y Leon Institute for the Promotion of Entrepreneurial Competitiveness (ICE) and the Castilla y Leon Institute for Social Finance.
Rooteco was founded in Palencia to increase agricultural productivity and yields in an environmentally responsible way. The agtech company produces and sells organic fertilisers and organic stimulants to large horticulture companies, including associations and cooperatives, which supply the products to growers and landowners.
Rooteco recently launched its products on the Spanish market and hopes to consolidate this market by 2023. It aims to expand across Europe in 2024 and further afield in 2025. To drive business growth, the company is opening a Series A funding round this month.
The problem of the agricultural sector
Most farmers resort to the use of chemical fertilizers to neutralize the usual stress on the crops to maintain their productivity, which is in turn countered with more chemical products to restore productivity in the short term.
The Rooteco solution
To solve this problem, Rooteco selects, isolates and commercializes microorganisms registered as biofertilizers or biostimulants, created on the basis of its own R&D and state-of-the-art technology to obtain strains of maximum efficiency.
"Because of our research and development work, we have been able to source our own highly efficient strains from the most remote places in the world. We didn't invent the wheel, but we have our own wheel, and that is what sets us apart" said David Villagra, founder and CEO of Rooteco.
Because of this high technology component, the company has received several awards: the Surcos Innovation Prize awarded by Castilla León TV, the Most Innovative Company Award awarded by El Mundo CyL and the Innovation, Quality and R&D Prize awarded by Palmarcia Town Council.
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