Agreena, an agtech firm focusing on carbon farming, has announced the acquisition of the UK-based Hummingbird Technologies. The two companies have closely collaborated for several years, with the acquisition being described as a strategic move between the leadership teams.
It strengthens Agreena’s value chain, underlining the company’s position for soil carbon certification. It will put key resources into the development of Hummingbird’s MRV (monitoring, reporting and verification) technology.
“Agreena is on a mission to enable an international regenerative agriculture movement, and this market-leading MRV solution can deliver a massive scalable impact,” said Simon Haldrup, co-founder and CEO of Agreena. “We have been thoroughly investigating advanced technology solutions and working towards enhancing our protocol since day one – and with this acquisition, we are not only scaling but also enhancing the integrity of the market.”
Hummingbird’s technology was set out in 2016 by founder Will Wells, who will join Agreena as an advisor, and designed to alleviate the climate burden of intensive farming and food production. It has developed a machine learning monitoring and verification system that uses low-orbit satellite imagery and ground-truth data. It automatically recognises and reports on-farm practices such as cover crops, tillage and roatations to track biomass and monitor field activities.
“Hummingbird and Agreena were early pioneers in what is now a thriving regenerative agriculture economy. Our complementary technologies have enabled this market to take off, and as such, this is the perfect match,” said Alexander Jevons, CEO of Hummingbird Technologies. “Our companies’ partnership-turned-marriage is a natural progression in a maturing and fast-growing industry.”