Elaniti Secures Investment from Investors, Including Biotope by VIB, Planetary Impact Ventures, and PINC
19 March 2025
UK agritech startup Elaniti has closed its recent funding round with participation from early-stage biotech investor biotope by VIB, Planetary Impact Ventures and Paulig Group’s CVC arm, PINC.
The investment marks a significant milestone in the company’s plans to accelerate the development of its flagship product – a soon-to-launch digital decision support tool for agribusinesses that uses AI and DNA sequencing to decode the microbial composition of soil, enabling farmers to optimise productivity in both the short term and long term while reducing reliance on synthetic inputs.
The latest round contributes to previous non-dilutive funding received by the company in January 2025 from Innovate UK, bringing the total amount raised to €1.5M
Soil intelligence for a sustainable future
Elaniti’s breakthrough technology addresses a critical knowledge gap in agriculture. While soil chemical and physical properties are often measured, biological activity—the microbes driving soil health and crop outcomes—remains largely unknown. By linking microbial data to agronomic performance like yield and disease pressure, Elaniti provides farmers with actionable insights to improve productivity while building healthier, more resilient soils. Resilient soils have always been important, but will be even more so in times of geopolitical uncertainty where more countries want to be self-sufficient.
Scott Jarrett, Elaniti CEO, said: “Soil is the foundation of our food system, but modern agriculture has strained its health. The soil microbiome holds the key to restoring fertility, resilience, and reducing reliance on synthetic inputs. By unlocking its potential, we can help farmers produce food sustainably while regenerating the land for future generations.”
Biotope’s strategic investment
Annick Verween, Head of biotope: “At biotope, we invest in pioneering biotech startups that address key sustainability challenges. Elaniti perfectly fits within our mission, as their work enables the transition to regenerative practices,” “Their technology holds significant potential for improving soil health while ensuring economic viability for farmers. Our biotech ecosystem will help accelerate their development through expertise, partners, and access to early adopters.”
Industry backing and investor confidence
Planetary Impact Ventures and PINC have also joined this round, recognising Elaniti’s potential to drive systemic change in agriculture.
Mikkel Lehmann, Board Member at Elaniti and investor at Planetary Impact Ventures: “We urgently need to understand soil microbiomes to transition towards regenerative farming. Elaniti’s ability to decode this complexity and translate it into practical guidance for farmers makes them a key player in this shift,” “We believe these insights will play a fundamental role in reducing pesticide usage and improving soil stewardship globally.”
PINC, the venture arm of Paulig, emphasised the relevance of Elaniti’s work for sustainable food production.
Rosemari Herrero, Senior Investment Manager at PINC: “Elaniti’s traction demonstrates that they are tackling a crucial challenge in agriculture. We are impressed by their ability to generate revenue from day one and by their courage to take on a highly technical and disruptive field,”
Scaling up for impact
With this investment, Elaniti will strengthen its team and expand its research efforts to accelerate the launch of its predictive analytics platform. The company continues to forge partnerships with agribusiness leaders, ensuring its insights are actionable and validated in real-world conditions.
About Elaniti
Elaniti is an agritech startup providing data-driven decision support tools to help farmers and agronomists improve crop performance by unlocking the secrets of the soil microbiome.
By combining DNA sequencing with applied machine learning, Elaniti has developed proprietary predictive models that forecast crop outcomes based on soil biological, physical, and nutrient characteristics.
With a multidisciplinary team at the intersection of agriculture, microbiology, and artificial intelligence, Elaniti provides growers with actionable insights to enhance productivity, resilience, and sustainability in agriculture.
About Biotope
Biotope is an early-stage investor launched by VIB, dedicated to backing biotech startups that drive positive impact for planetary health. We focus on strong, diverse founding teams, providing them with both financial investment and biotech-focused strategic resources to accelerate their path to the next financing round.
Beyond capital, Biotope offers hands-on support, helping startups de-risk their journey, refine their business models, become scalable, and establish a robust foundation in IP and regulatory strategy. Through our high-impact network of biotech experts, investors, and industry leaders, we connect ventures with the right partners to fuel their growth.
With a mission to turn cutting-edge biotech technologies into successful, financially sound businesses, Biotope ensures startups have the tools, funding, and strategic insights to scale and make a lasting impact.
Biotope is supported by the Flemish Government, the European Union, and the City of Ghent.
For more information, visit: https://biotope-incubator.com/
About Planetary Impact Ventures
Planetary Impact Ventures is a Danish evergreen investment fund investing with soil health, regenerative agriculture and organic, plant-centric food. The fund wants to contribute to food- and agricultural systems that can thrive within planetary boundaries.
About PINC
PINC is Paulig’s venture arm for investments in early-stage startups in and around the future of food. PINC aims to help Paulig renew itself and prosper, as well as contribute to a tastier and more sustainable planet.
About Paulig
Paulig is an international food and beverage company, growing a new, sustainable food culture – one that is good for both people and the planet. Paulig provides all things tasty: Tex Mex, Snacks, coffees, World Foods and spices. The company’s brands are Paulig, Santa Maria, Risenta, Poco Loco and Zanuy. Paulig also has a successful Customer Brands business containing value brands, private labels and industrial products. In 2024, the company’s sales amounted to approximately EUR 1.2 billion. Paulig was founded in 1876 and is 100% owned by the Paulig family. The company has 2,500 passionate employees in 13 different countries working on our purpose – For a life full of flavour.
(Team Elaniti, from left to right)
Utkarsh Vaidya, CTO; Brendan Hamill , COO; Natali Hernández, Head of Bioinformatics; Scott Jarrett, CEO.
