Rooteco, a Spanish biotech start-up, has raised €300,000 in funding in a seed round involving the Institute for the Promotion of Business Competitiveness of Castilla y León (ICE) and the Sodical Financing Institute of Castilla y León.
Rooteco was founded in Palencia with the aim of improving agricultural productivity and yield in an environmentally sustainable way. The agrotech company produces and sells bio-fertilizers and bio-stimulants to large horticultural companies, including associations and cooperatives, which ultimately supply the products to growers and landowners.
Rooteco has recently launched its products on the Spanish market, which it expects to consolidate in 2023. The aim is to expand throughout Europe in 2024 and beyond in 2025. To drive this business growth, Rooteco is opening a series A round this month.
The problem of the agricultural sector
Most farmers resort to using chemical fertilizers to counteract the usual stress on crops to maintain their productivity. However, these products cause soil pollution in the long term, which ultimately leads to even more stress and loss of productivity, which in turn is combated with more chemicals to restore productivity in the short term. According to the company, this circle is unsustainable on an agricultural, ecological, and economic level.
Rooteco's solution
To solve this problem, Rooteco selects, isolates, multiplies, and markets microorganisms registered as bio-fertilizers or bio-stimulants, created on the basis of its own R&D and breakthrough technology that allows it to obtain maximum efficiency strains.
"Thanks to our research and development work, we have been able to obtain our own highly efficient strains from the most remote places in the world. We didn't invent the wheel, but we do have our own wheel, and that's what differentiates us," stated David Villagra, the founder and CEO of Rooteco.
Thanks to this high-tech component, the company has already received several awards: the Surcos Prize for Innovation awarded by Castilla León TV, the Most Innovative Company award awarded by El Mundo CyL, and the Innovation, Quality, and R&D award awarded by the Chamber of Commerce of Palencia.
For more information:
Rooteco
www.rooteco.org