Entrepreneurship in the agricultural sector is a rarity in Catalonia and the case of Agroptima is one of the few success stories of the local ecosystem.
The startup, which develops software to manage farms, has just been acquired by the French group Isagri, one of the major competitors in the sector, which has a turnover of 283 million euros and employs 2,500 people worldwide.
The acquisition has been closed through the Isagri subsidiary in Spain for a price that both companies prefer not to share. Together, his business has a turnover of 5 million in this country.
Emilia Vila, co-founder of the business together with Anisia Tardà and Ferran Gascón, explains that Agroptima will maintain the brand as well as the entire team, made up of 28 workers. Vila y Gascón will assume new positions of responsibility: the direction of vegetable production, in the first case, and the technical direction, in the second. The company will be directed by Emilie Maigre, the current general director of the Spanish subsidiary.
With this operation, Agroptima opens a new stage within one of the large multinationals in the sector. The startup was founded in 2014 in Sant Feliu de Codines and since then, it has had sustained growth in the market. Currently, it has 2,700 clients spread across Spain, France, Central and South America. It sells its software to companies that operate agricultural, livestock and wine-producing farms. “Through our technology, we help our customers increase efficiency, profitability and sustainability. We also respond to the growing legal and technical obligations of its activity”, explains the co-founder of the business, which demands a fee for the use of technology.
With this model, Agroptima invoiced around 930,000 euros and recorded losses of around 200,000 euros, according to data from the Mercantile Registry. Throughout its eight years of life, the company has financed its growth through its own resources and also venture capital. It has raised more than 2.5 million euros, from funds such as Athos Capital, Maxfield Capital and Esade Ban, the network of private investors from the Esade business school.
It has also given entry to other reference investors such as Carlos Blanco, who after selling his small part of the capital values the investment positively. “In the agricultural sector, the return takes longer to arrive because the growth of startups is slower than the average in the digital sector. In the case of Agroptima, the wait has been worth it because the startup has proven to add value to the market”, concludes Blanco.
