How Agrotools aims to become the first agribusiness unicorn in Brazil
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – In the financial world, a unicorn is any company valued by the market at US$1 billion or more. Some 28 Brazilian companies have already become unicorns – 10 of them as recently as 2021 – and the number is expected to reach 100 in the next five years, according to ABStartups (Brazilian Startup Association).
Which other 72 companies will reach the unicorn stage in this race? There is no agribusiness company in this club of billionaires yet. Still, Agrotools, a digital platform for remote analytics for agribusiness companies based in São Paulo, hopes to become one of them.
Achieving that position is what drives economist Sérgio Rocha, 62, CEO and founder of the company in 2007.
When he founded Agrotools, he had the idea of bringing organized information to agriculture as a service that can be used for risk analysis of financial, insurance, purchase, and sale transactions, which helps manage business in the field and agribusiness. In 2021, the company doubled its growth, reaching R$130 million in revenue, equivalent to US$24.2 million in today’s U.S. currency (28).
He says one of the biggest challenges in the company’s early days was building a platform from the ground up that aggregates all the information agricultural stakeholders need to make more accurate economic decisions. Today, for example, the platform can compare data on the evolution of biomass in a cultivated area and, therefore, on the potential for cultivation and the risks that can arise from droughts or heavy rains.
In the age of intelligence, those who analyze data for agribusiness are the protagonists. Through its proprietary algorithms, the BigData company has already analyzed more than 4.5 million rural areas in the last decade, equivalent to more than 200 million hectares or 200 million soccer fields. In addition, the company monitors more than R$100 billion in industrial operations, R$15 billion in commodities, and 60% of Brazilian cattle slaughter.
Today, Agrotools serves more than 200 customers in Brazil, and 15% of the country’s largest companies, such as XP Investimentos, Cargill, Sicoob, McDonald’s, Nestlé, Itaú, Caramuru, BRF, Rabobank, Carrefour, and Sicredi, used at least one of its solutions. The brand also brings its technologies to the United States, Australia, and neighboring countries, Paraguay and Argentina.
With its three business units – ESG, Agribusiness Financial Market, and Business Intelligence the company pioneered the market in 2007 and has the world’s largest monitoring system from field to retail.
It provides analytics that enables risk management across the credit and agribusiness insurance chain, technology shielding multiple companies in the supply chain from ESG aspects, and intelligence contribution for product sales operations and commodity purchases.
In total, 1,300 data layers will be analyzed for various links in the sector: from cooperatives, traders, reinsurers, input companies, and investment funds to food retailers.
“We translate agribusiness for the entire industry,” says Sérgio Rocha, CEO of Agrotools to Brazilian newspapers. The company supports financial institutions in lending and insurance, provides precision and assertiveness in risk monitoring, and is a tool for solutions related to environmental compliance and supply chain traceability.
“Through our advanced technology platform, developed exclusively for agribusiness, we aim to democratize access to information in this sector, a pillar of competitive differentiation and ESG compliance in the market,” Rocha says.
According to him, by providing powerful business and management information, the platform enables corporate market participants to understand everything happening with suppliers and customers across the rural space and make the best decisions that impact the entire chain.
In 2021, the company doubled the number of active contracts and increased the number of customers by 40%. “We have also continued to expand our activities in agribusiness with the main credit unions in Brazil, fintechs, capital markets, manufacturers and resellers of inputs, and major retail brands. In addition, there are banks, insurance companies, trading companies, and meat packers,” Rocha said.
PROJECTS
In the past year, Agrotools has launched 53 new products, including APIs and ready-to-use analytical tools and a new marketplace distribution channel, At Market.
“In 2022, we plan to continue releasing one API called Function per week and one ready-to-use analytics tool called Pixel per month,” the CEO says.
The BigData company is also building a one-stop-shop intelligence experience for companies engaged in agro. Its solution ecosystem has also added several companies with its innovative products and tools, including Neoway, Metos, Courier, Docket, Boa Vista, Microsoft, Brasoftware, Orbia, and Planet.
In terms of numbers, Agrotools employs more than 300 people, increasing more than 300% in two years. Due to its foreign operations, about 30% of its revenues are now generated in dollars.
Its platform, the largest database in the field, with auditable reports and a retention period of up to five years, includes various sources, such as public and private databases, images from more than five different satellites, and multiple clouds.
In other words, Agrotools produces ESG analyses in seconds, including on production chains, climate, and territory.
According to Rocha, it monitors R$50 billion worth of transactions at financial institutions alone. “We work with more than 15 segments, such as credit unions, production cooperatives, banks, fintechs, insurance companies, retail, and the supply industry for machinery, pesticides, and fertilizers. More than 200,000 ESG analyses are performed daily, with more than 45 criteria in the social-ecological analysis area,” he says.
With information from Forbes Brasil, Exame
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