Agrivi is mixed of technology, love, and farming

One of the Croatian startups Agrivi is oriented to help the farmers in everyday business, According to its founder Matija Žulj Agrvi is not the only knowledge-based farm management software company that delivers knowledge through technology.

Agrivi has started with only one product. What can you now offer the market? How long did you need to develop some of the product in your product line?

Agrivi as a company is dedicated to building knowledge-based farm management software solutions that help farmers in reaching resource-efficient, profitable and sustainable production. Our efforts are driven by our vision to change the way food is produced, positively impacting over a billion people. To achieve that, we are addressing all stakeholders in the industry. We work with all scales of farmers, from smallholders that cultivate one acre to big growers that cultivate over 20.000 acres. We also work with agricultural cooperatives, wholesale buyers, food processing industry, NGOs, technical service providers, telcos, governments and other stakeholders who are interested in increasing productivity of their network of farmers.

As a company, we are very customer-driven, so all our products have been made in interaction with our customers, listening to their problems and identifying how we can help them in solving those problems. All of our products are based on the core farm management platform which is being continuously developed and improved for almost four years, and we already have development plans for the next three years.

Can you explain in details some of the product in the product line and the idea behind - the business model for the company and the users?

Our product line consists of three products Farm Management SaaS - the complete farm management solution for SME growers delivered as self-service platform on a monthly or annual subscription., Enterprise Farm Management - premium solution for big enterprise growers with advanced needs like third-party software integrations (ERP, CRM, accounting, etc.) or integrations with third-party hardware (machinery, sensors, irrigation, etc.). Farmer Network Management - solution for organizations that manage networks of farmers and are interested in improving its performance, ensuring standards compliance and traceability, etc. Ideal for cooperatives, food processing, NGOs, and governments.

Agrivi is the young startup. Why did you start with it?

After working for almost a decade in ICT industry, I realized that all the things I did, and I worked on incredible projects during my career, simply don’t hit the real-world issues. I have also realized that there are not too many people that are trying to solve some of the hardest global challenges, and if we want to ensure a safe future for all of us, you can’t just be an observer, you need to get involved. So I did - I decided to get involved in the food industry since we all need to eat and global food problem is one of the key global challenges where food production needs to increase by 60% in the next 33 years if we want to feed the 9 billion population. And that’s with limited natural resources, huge climate change impacts and only 33 tries since agriculture has an annual production life-cycle. To understand the real issues, I became a farmer, I have planted my blueberry farm and for over 4 years I am experiencing all the pain farmers experience on my skin - and that’s the key to being able not to fly away with technology in the wrong direction, this keeps you on the ground very well.

The company is selling solutions all around the world. What is your differentiator with other products on the market?

Agrivi is not another software company that lets you enter the data and provides analytics on that data. We are the only knowledge-based farm management software company that delivers knowledge through technology. In our platform, farmer’s data is only one of many data streams we are using to be able to deliver the maximum added value to farmers by providing real-time insight into overall farm performance and feed farmers with key performance indicators that are necessary for making smart decisions on a daily basis. We are eager to move farmers from a gut-feeling production to data-driven production.

Additionally, we provider solution to farmers and other industry stakeholders in their native languages, which is crucial since most farmers worldwide simply don’t speak English.

How was the business in las few years? (revenue, EBITDA, profit...)

As a company, we are primarily focused on building up market share and positioning as a global leader. Our revenues are growing fast with the growth of our customer base, but EBITDA and profitability is not our focus now and will be not in focus in the following years - everything we earn is completely invested into expansion.