Achmea Innovation Fund invests in German agritech start-up Klim
The Achmea Innovation Fund has made an investment in the German agritech startup Klim. Klim was founded in 2020 to support the agriculture and food industry in the transition to regenerative agriculture. This sustainable way of farming improves soil health, increases biodiversity, and ensures that more carbon is stored in the soil.
Traditional agriculture accounts for a substantial share of global greenhouse gas emissions. This has a negative impact on food security, soil and natural ecosystems. Klim wants to change this by supporting farmers and food companies in making their agricultural practices more sustainable.
Digital platform for transition assistance and financing
Through a digital platform, Klim provides farmers with the necessary tools to plan, adapt their way of working and find funding for the transition to regenerative agriculture. This helps them store more carbon in the soil, improve soil quality, and reduce their carbon footprint.
Removing barriers and partnering with food companies
A key part of Klim's approach is to generate carbon credits for the extra carbon stored. Klim measures this storage and sells the associated carbon credits to companies, such as food producers, that want to reduce their own emissions, or to other industries that want to offset their emissions. This helps companies achieve their environmental goals, but also provides additional income for farmers. This is important as the transition to regenerative agriculture often results in losses for the farmer in the first few years. By removing barriers such as funding for this transition and a lack of advice around regenerative agriculture, and partnering with large food companies, Klim ensures that the transition to more sustainable agriculture happens faster and on a larger scale.
Currently, more than 3,500 farmers in Germany and Poland are already using the platform. Together, they cultivate more than 700,000 hectares of land, representing 5% of Germany's agricultural land. Klim's solution has already attracted the attention of key players in the food industry, with global companies such as Nestlé, Kaufland and Aryzta among its customers.
Creating more resilient systems
Henrieke Hoftijzer, investment director of Achmea Innovation Fund: "With our investment in Klim, we want to contribute to accelerating the transition to regenerative agriculture. We believe that this transition comes from a contribution from everyone in the agricultural ecosystem and that together we can create more resilient systems that ultimately benefit farmers, the environment and society as a whole. By being involved in this development, Achmea can learn how these regenerative farming methods work and what impact they have. This enables Achmea to be prepared and provide relevant solutions in a timely manner when regenerative agriculture takes place on a larger scale."
Expansion of international presence and improvement of the platform
Achmea Innovation Fund's investment is part of a Series A financing round, led by BNP Paribas. Other prominent investors such as Rabobank, Earthshot Ventures, Norinchukin Bank and Elevator Ventures also participated in the round. The new funding will enable Klim to expand its international presence and further enhance and expand its platform with a new financial services layer.