Soil Capital raises €15M Series B investment to boost agricultural transition

• Soil Capital closes €15M Series B fundraise led by Trill Impact Ventures, with the participation from Société Fédérale de Participations et d’Investissement(SFPIM), Sandwater, Santander Alternative Investments, as well as existing investors Ring Capital, Edaphon, the company founders and other existing shareholders.
• With this round of funding, Soil Capital intends to strengthen its role as a preferred partner of farmers and agri-food businesses in building a resilient food system.
• The funding will be used to scale up operations and meet the rising demand for comprehensive indicators that include GHG emissions, soil health, water quality, biodiversity, and socio-economic factors. Significant improvements will be made to the data entry platform and agronomic support for farmers. Funding will also be used to continue the firm’s geographic expansion,extending its program to more farmers in new regions of the world.

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Brussels, September 3, 2024 – Soil Capital, a B Corp company, today announced that it has successfully closed a €15M fundraising round. The raise reflects the business’s 1 position as a key partner for stakeholders in the agri-food sector, and the scale of its ambitions to support resilience of the food system. Soil Capital aims to strengthen, secure, and make agricultural supply chains more sustainable, addressing a ‘triple need’:social, environmental, and economic.

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Chuck de Liedekerke, CEO of Soil Capital, commented: “As a team with longstanding experience managing farms, we have seen firsthand the reality and consequences of climate change. These are already very real. That’s why we launched Soil Capital, with a vision to reshape the agricultural value chain.

“This new funding gives us the scope and capacity to take our impact to the next level, with an enhanced value proposition that will help to reimagine the relationship between society, land use, food systems and nature.”

This year, the organization has paid more than 800 arable and mixed farmers in the UK, France and Belgium for environmentally friendly farming practices, up from 400 in 2022,with the first quarterly payment value of 2024 totalling £2.4 million as the company develops its presence across Europe.

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Dr. Alexander Domin, Partner at Trill Impact Advisory and Co-Head of Trill Impact Ventures, said: “We believe that Soil Capital is well positioned to champion the regenerative agriculture transition. With their large base of loyal farmers and high-integrity standards for certification, they help some of the world’s largest food corporates reduce their net emissions and strengthen their supply chain’s resilience to climate change.

"The investment in Soil Capital is a testament to Trill Impact’s belief that business models addressing crucial climate challenges have great potential to become commercial winners. Together with our co-investors, we look forward to supporting the team’s ambition to enable farmers’ around the world in their transition.”

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Peter De Decker, Investment Manager at SFPIM, added: “We share Soil Capital’s mission of supporting farmers in their transition to regenerative and sustainable agriculture. We are convinced that Soil Capital will enable change by unlocking a virtuous cycle. First of all by placing the environment at the heart of its activities, but also by supporting farmers towards a future-proof farming model. We are very eager to collaborate with Soil Capital’s team and the other investors on its ambitious plan.”

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Tom Even Mortensen, Founder and CEO of Sandwater, remarked: “We’re deeply impressed by Soil Capital’s commitment to, and demonstrated success in, making regenerative agriculture the economically attractive choice for farmers, by engaging corporates to invest in the sustainability and resilience of their supply chains. We’re looking forward to the scaling journey ahead, together with the company and our co-investors.”

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Charlotte Lafont, Investment Director at Ring Capital, added: “We're very proud to renew and increase our support for Soil Capital’s very talented team. Since our initial investment in January 2023, we've contemplated the many successes of the company confirming their capacity to unlock the great power of regenerative agriculture.“We're glad to be joined by highly qualified investors such as Trill Impact, SFPIM, Sandwater and Santander Alternative Investments to support Soil Capital in its expansion and accelerate the deployment of their programme. Through its innovative programme, Soil Capital not only addresses the environmental problems of our food system, but also provides a viable and powerful solution to the social and economic challenges of the farming sector, thus combining comprehensive impact and scalable business model.”

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About Soil Capital

Soil Capital is a certified B Corp company whose mission is to support farmers in their transition to regenerative and sustainable agriculture. Soil Capital's programme benefits over 1,600 farmers in France, Belgium and the UK, covering 350,000 hectares. It is based on a reliable methodology, certified by a tangible carbon indicator, aligned with corporate objectives to reduce scope 3 carbon emissions. Soil Capital's certificates comply with the FLAG requirements of the SBT initiative, and are measurable and verified by third parties.

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Media Contact

Soil Capital: Rowann Innes - rinnes@headlandconsultancy.com / +44 (0)73 1137 0023