Italian agri-tech startup Evja recently closed a € 4.2 million Series A round led by Cdp Venture Capital through its Italia Venture II fund, SEFEA Impact fund, and partner Startupbootcamp Foodtech.
Founded by Davide Parisi, Antonio Affinito, and Paolo Iasevoli, Evja provides farmers with a patented precision agriculture system to optimize irrigation, nutrition, and crop defense using predictive agronomic models and artificial intelligence.
"I'd like to share this achievement with our partners and customers. They are an essential part of the Evja project," said Davide Parisi, CEO of Evja. "We know that by continuing to focus on the high scientific content of our patented Decision Support System and by caring for all those involved, we can continue to grow. After all, true success can only be achieved in one way: by working together."
"The presence of prominent investors on board is also important from a strategic point of view," adds marketing manager Paolo Iasevoli. "SEFEA Impact, for example, invests with the goal of creating measurable social and environmental impact. This once again validates Evja's achievements in sustainability."
"At our company, we have a deep commitment to agriculture and great respect for farmers who face daily challenges, especially those related to climate change, the conscious use of natural resources, and the realization of the sustainability goals of the UN 2030 agenda," said CTO Antonio Affinito. "The excellence of the technical and scientific services that we offer has allowed us to secure customers in 9 countries, on 4 continents. To date, we can count on a well-established presence in the horticultural sector, both in protected crops and in open field crops." The company's technology is unique on the market, and it holds 4 patents, 3 of which are already internationally recognized, as previously documented by another article on FreshPlaza.
Evaja has already received investments from two industry MNCs, German Baywa and Austrian RWA, via Vienna's Agro Innovation Lab accelerator program. In 2017, the company received an investment from the Rome-based accelerator Startupbootcamp Foodtech, which was also a participant in the follow-on of this round. Finally, in 2020, Evja received an investment from Startlife, an accelerator based at the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands.
"After a period of growth that has been achieved for the most part solely through our own efforts, we believe that we are finally ready to begin our international expansion in the most important fruit and vegetable markets," said Parisi. "The financial resources provided by our new investors will allow us to accelerate sales and product optimization without losing sight of our main differentiation factors: technological excellence and scientific quality of the service offered."
Francesca Ottier, Senior Partner and Head of Cdp Venture Capital's Italia Venture II Fund: "We are proud to add to our portfolio a young company with a strong international presence in a sector as strategic for Italy as agritech. The fact that Evja has been able to develop its own solution with limited resources and has already achieved important international sales results makes us confident about the growth prospects that our investment can generate."
Thanks to the high scientific content of the services offered, Evja provides crucial information for monitoring sustainable agricultural practices," added Massimo Giusti, President and CEO of Sefea Impact.
The investors were assisted in the transaction by Linklaters (lawyers Pietro Belloni and Giulia Bordin), while the startup was advised by the law firm One Partner and by lawyer Francesco Torelli of the law firm Hilex.
Photos of the article courtesy of Paolo Iasevoli
For more information, please visit: www.evja.eu