Yara International, the Norwegian crop nutrition company, has invested in Stenon, a startup in Potsdam, Germany, that measures soil nitrogen directly in the field. The money comes through Yara Growth Ventures, the group's venture arm, and forms the second close of Stenon's Series B round. The terms were not disclosed.
The first close of the round, earlier this year, raised 18 million euros ($20.5 million) and was led by the Dutch impact investor Pymwymic.
Stenon's portable FarmLab device measures plant-available nitrogen, soil organic matter, temperature and moisture, among other readings, in the field. The company's software and AI models then turn the raw readings into fertilizer recommendations for growers and agronomists. The point, the company says, is that plant-available nitrogen can vary a great deal across one field and through a season, while many farmers still decide on fertilizer with little information about their soil.
"Our technology is designed to transform soil data from an occasional measurement into an operational layer of agricultural decision-making," founder and chief executive Niels Grabbert told AgFunderNews. He called Yara, one of the world's largest producers of nitrogen fertilizer, "a good strategic match", and said its agronomic and economic advice could be built into Stenon's own product.
The deal lands as fertilizer prices climb. In June the World Bank said disruption around the Strait of Hormuz had pushed urea and phosphate prices to their highest levels since 2022, and warned that higher fertilizer costs could push growers to apply less or switch to less nutrient-hungry crops, which would weigh on yields.
Stenon sells to input retailers, machinery dealers, agricultural consultants and food producers. Grabbert says the platform is used across several million acres in Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Greece, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Brazil and California. The new money will go into its soil nitrogen platform and into more crops and regions; over the next 12 months the company plans to ready a new technology for launch in 2027, which it did not describe, to grow in Latin America and to enter new markets.
The report was written by Jennifer Marston for AgFunderNews.
Source: AgFunderNews
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