Seqana raises $3.6M seed to expand soil health monitoring beyond carbon
Berlin-based Seqana has closed a $3.6M seed round to expand its soil health monitoring platform. The round was led by Amsterdam-based impact investor Pymwymic, with participation from existing backers HTGF and Counteract, along with Landwirtschaftliche Rentenbank.
Founded in 2020, Seqana combines proprietary machine-learning models with satellite imagery and field data to produce digital soil maps. Its clients include Danone, Bayer, and Klim, and it has assessed several million hectares to date.
The fresh capital will fund development of broader soil health indicators beyond carbon, giving agrifood companies and carbon-market project developers a fuller picture of how their regenerative agriculture programmes are performing.
Soil degradation already costs the EU an estimated €50B a year, and more than 60% of European soils are classified as unhealthy, according to the European Commission. That makes soil health an increasingly tangible economic risk — not just an environmental one.
The business case is becoming hard to ignore. During Europe's 2023 droughts, French farms using advanced regenerative practices saw yield losses of just 8%, compared to 22% for the least regenerative operations. Regulations and voluntary carbon-market standards are also maturing: Seqana co-authored Verra's VM0042 v3 methodology and the Gold Standard's SOC Model Guidelines.
Satellite-based soil measurement still depends on ground-truth data for calibration, and scaling accuracy across diverse geographies and soil types is non-trivial. The voluntary carbon market itself remains volatile — buyer confidence has fluctuated, and methodological debates continue to evolve.
Competition is also intensifying. Several agritech startups and established remote-sensing firms are pushing into soil carbon monitoring, which could compress margins as the market matures.
Pymwymic leading this round underscores growing impact-investor appetite for agritech that goes beyond carbon credits to address supply-chain resilience — a theme gaining traction as EU soil-health regulation tightens. For an early-stage company, Seqana's client roster of major agrifood names like Danone and Bayer, combined with its role co-authoring key voluntary carbon market methodologies, suggests it is building a defensible position in a space where credibility is as important as technology.
