Kale United

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Kale United The leading agrifoodtech investor in the Nordics

We make it possible for everyone to be shareholders of a portfolio of plant-based game changers.

We invest in the merger of biology and technology.

20/10/2026

Kale United’s vision brings AI and robotics into a smarter, more sustainable food system—and the economics of precision farming are central to that ambition.

A study led by the University of Bonn in Germany, with ETH Zurich in Switzerland among the participating institutions, places Western Europe among the regions where smart farming offers the greatest economic benefit.

Published in PNAS, the research estimates that smart farming is already profitable on 42% of global cropland. That is a profitability estimate, not a measure of adoption.

The share could reach 50% within 20 years. Under a scenario where every country tightened environmental regulations, it could reach 75%; universal loosening would bring it down to 31%.

For European founders and operators, the underlying drivers matter. Higher labour costs strengthen the case for automation. Targeted application of fertilizers and pesticides can reduce spending on inputs. Strong environmental governance was the most important predictor in the models.

The researchers drew on more than 4,000 locations and assessed five technology categories, spanning smart irrigation, weeding robots, field mapping, variable input application and GPS steering.

There are limits: upfront costs, implementation expertise and equipment designed around larger farms can constrain the business case.

Where should Europe focus next to make precision farming economically viable for smaller farms too?

19/10/2026

Kale United’s vision for an AI-first food system puts the digital foundations of European processing and logistics firmly in focus.

EU food and beverage processors reached 12% AI adoption in 2025, according to the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre. But the headline hides an important distinction: adoption is growing much faster in office functions than in production.

Across the surveyed agri-food segment, AI use rose from 5% in 2021 to 13% in 2025, compared with 20% across all sectors.

Three details matter for investors and operators:

• The survey excludes farming and fishing and covers enterprises with at least 10 employees. Its agri-food figure combines processors with agricultural machinery manufacturers, where adoption reached 25%.
• Between 2023 and 2025, marketing and sales adoption rose 3.3 percentage points; administration rose 2.5. Production gained only 0.2 points.
• Logistics adoption stood at 1% in 2025, having slipped slightly since 2023.

The report calls AI “the tip of the digitalisation pyramid”. Cloud computing, customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning and fast broadband provide the foundations. Lack of relevant expertise remains the most frequently cited barrier among agri-food firms that considered AI but did not adopt it.

The implication: operational transformation depends on digital readiness and organisational change, not simply access to AI tools.

Where should European food businesses strengthen those foundations first: production or logistics?

18/10/2026

Kale United’s vision of a smarter food system links agricultural sensing with AI-driven decisions—and procurement is an important application of that approach.

Germany-based Finches has secured €2 million in pre-seed funding to help companies identify agricultural sourcing risks directly in the field.

HTGF leads the round, with Vanagon Ventures as co-lead. Bayern Kapital joins as a new investor, while UnternehmerTUM Funding for Innovators and strategic business angels are reinvesting.

Finches combines company data on suppliers, farmland and contracts with external signals: weather and satellite analyses, local news, scientific findings and reports from its own on-site agronomists.

The platform identifies affected regions and supply chains, providing procurement teams with early warnings and direct recommendations for action. The goal is to protect raw-material quantity, quality and cost-effectiveness before crop failures or quality issues jeopardize production.

Finches Intelligence has been live since September 2026. The founders will use the funding to expand product and sales operations.

For food manufacturers facing climate, pest and geopolitical disruptions, the proposition is concrete: more time to act before a shortage becomes a production problem.

Where could earlier field-level intelligence make the biggest difference in your procurement decisions?

17/10/2026

For Kale United, the convergence of AI and crop genetics is central to building a smarter, more sustainable food system—and practical benefits on farms are what make that convergence matter.

Sweden’s Lantmännen is investing SEK 100 million in a new plant-breeding facility in Svalöv. AI already plays a role in its breeding work, with opportunities to accelerate the development of new crop varieties.

At the Congress of European Farmers in Stockholm, Executive Vice President and CTO Per Arfvidsson highlighted the potential for AI-enabled tools to improve farmers’ use of fertilizer, crop protection products and water.

Two businesses illustrate the practical applications:

• Cgrain, majority-owned by Lantmännen, commercially deploys AI and image analysis to assess grain quality automatically.
• Agronod, in which Lantmännen holds a stake, enables secure data storage and sharing. Its Agrosfär tool helps farmers calculate their production’s climate impact.

The enabling conditions are just as important as the technology: large volumes of quality-assured data, tangible farm-level benefits and farmers retaining technical and legal control over their information.

Digitalization could also reduce administrative work through automated reporting and data reuse. Strategic decisions about crops, rotations and sales will remain with farmers.

Which application offers the clearest near-term value for European farmers: faster breeding, resource efficiency or reduced administration?

16/10/2026

For Kale United, connecting sensing, AI and operational decisions is central to building a smarter, more sustainable food system.

Ghent-based Backbone and Polysense have announced a partnership targeting a persistent gap in food manufacturing: production-line measurements often remain disconnected from the context needed to act on them.

Polysense automates line monitoring through sensors and cameras. Backbone links those observations to customer requirements, supplier data, historical records and standards including IFS and BRCGS.

The aim is a continuous quality loop: measure, understand, decide, improve and prove.

Beyond interpreting deviations, Backbone’s AI agents handle tasks such as tracking certificates, validating lab results and logging incidents. The partners want quality teams spending less time on paperwork and more time on structural improvements.

Their business case extends beyond compliance. Earlier detection and continuous process refinement could reduce waste and lift yields, while faster specification approvals, supplier assessments and audit preparation could strengthen manufacturers’ commercial position.

Those are the partnership’s ambitions; the article does not report quantified results. Both companies serve food manufacturers in sectors including potato processing, bakery, and fruit and vegetables.

Where is the biggest disconnect in your quality workflow: measurement, context or action?

15/10/2026

Kale United backs factory-fit, edge AI that reduces inputs and makes fields continuously measurable. This is the kind of precision farming infrastructure that can compound value every time a tractor moves.

PerPlant (Denmark) has secured a partnership with Valtra Unlimited to factory-fit its AI crop sensor on new Valtra tractors across selected European markets, with sales beginning this month alongside Valtra’s sixth-generation T Series. The dual-camera roof unit scans crops on the move to generate maps and trigger real-time actions, including spot spraying weeds and variable-rate application of fertilizer, fungicide and growth regulator — day or night. It tracks biomass, weeds and risk zones across the season and syncs to farm management systems.

The system works with ISOBUS sprayers, spreaders and seeders and integrates with Valtra’s precision ecosystem, including PTx. Reported results: 40%–87% reductions in input use depending on implement, with average operating cost around €4 per hectare on a 200-hectare farm.

Founded in Copenhagen in 2022, PerPlant now has dealers in more than 10 European countries and says its sensors have mapped over 250,000 hectares across 12 countries. It recently raised €1 million and is now raising €5 million. The company is also building Nexus, a field-data platform validated with the largest agricultural cooperative in the Netherlands, slated for production early next year.

Where do you see factory-fit AI delivering the fastest ROI in Europe’s fields this season?

13/10/2026

Kale United backs the convergence of biology and AI to build a smarter, more resilient and circular food system. AI-guided fermentation that valorizes side streams into ingredients is precisely the kind of platform that can digitize and de-risk supply across Europe.

Moa Foodtech, based in Noáin, Spain, turns food industry by-products into functional ingredients using AI to select optimal microbes and feedstocks. Publicly launched in 2021, the company has secured €12 million from investors including Icos Capital, Swanlaab Venture Factory, the European Innovation Council Fund, and Viscofan.

With a library of 300 microbial strains, Moa’s AI predicts which organisms can break down a given by-product or produce a desired ingredient, and the team validates pathways at the bench. The approach has accelerated development: the first ingredient took 4 years to reach industrial scale, while the second scaled in under 1 year as AI capabilities improved.

Moa is piloting a high-protein, high-fiber emulsifier to replace eggs in baked goods and mayonnaise, and it already supplies a yeast-derived ingredient used in commercial pet food. The firm claims the yeast-made emulsifier is more sustainable than eggs and can help hedge against bird flu–driven egg price volatility. Industry analysts note the appeal of converting paid-to-dispose side streams into functional ingredients, while cautioning that cost competitiveness will be key.

Could AI-first fermentation become Europe’s go-to pathway for circular, supply-secure ingredients?

12/10/2026

Croatia’s Agrivi is turning artificial intelligence into a virtual agricultural workforce, moving beyond its roots in farm management software and into AI-powered advisory tools—and even research into humanoid robots for dangerous and dirty farm tasks.

Founded in 2013, the company’s tools are used by farmers, agribusinesses, food companies and governments in more than 100 countries. This evolution underscores how European agtech can scale from field-level recordkeeping to decision support and operational ex*****on.

Why this matters: Croatia, one of the smallest EU members, is aiming to capture more value domestically rather than exporting raw commodities. Homegrown technology companies like Agrivi offer a route to that goal by enabling digitization and AI-driven capabilities across the agri-food value chain.

European agri-food stakeholders should watch how AI advisory systems and robotics converge in practical farm workflows. The question now is how quickly these tools can be integrated safely and cost-effectively to address labor constraints and operational risk across different crops and regions.

What part of the farm operation do you see AI advisors improving first in Europe?

09/10/2026

Europe’s agrifood supply chains are being stress-tested by climate volatility — and buyers need tools that move from warning to action. Germany’s Finches just raised €2M pre-seed to do exactly that.

The Bavaria-based startup closed a round led by High-Tech Gründerfonds with Vanagon Ventures as co-lead; Bayern Kapital joined, alongside UnternehmerTUM Funding for Innovators and existing angels. Finches Intelligence went live in September 2026 with a clear stance: no generic yield forecasts. Instead, it models what a specific manufacturer buys — raw materials, origins, suppliers, specs and contracts — and interprets external signals (weather, satellite, soil, crop science, pests/disease, market data, tariffs, regulation, local-language news) against internal data (procurement history, contracts, lab results, field observations).

Finches Field adds ground truth: agronomists capture offline voice, photos and notes that become structured, traceable records at plot/supplier/variety/season level. Pricing ties the core platform to agricultural spend rather than seat count, with add-ons for premium alerting, connectors, custom risk models and automated reports. Crucially, teams can start without full integration; SAP and lab connectors can follow.

The context is stark: Europe’s 2026 heat and drought reduced the June–September grain production forecast by 16.7 million tonnes (~€3.2bn), while WWA reports western Europe’s soil drought is ~5x more likely and extreme evaporative demand ~80x more likely. Finches is still early (capped Early Access; hosting providers hold ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type 2; company targets its own certifications by Q2 2027), but the thesis is timely: connect signals to specific contracts before the market or lab does it for you.

Can supplier- and contract-level intelligence become the new standard for European agricultural procurement?

02/10/2026

Data, not guesswork, now defines productive greenhouse operations in Europe. Hispatec (Spain) argues that meeting large retail requirements demands a reliable, actionable source of real-time information—across the greenhouse and into the packhouse.

Key takeaways:

• Granular visibility: know what each crew is doing in every greenhouse and crop to react fast to ripening delays, excessive water use, or pests.
• Full traceability: reconstruct each batch from who planted it to the packing line—vital for customer and consumer confidence.
• Labor, then traceability: labor is the most complex and costly factor; traceability comes next.
• Proven at scale: an Almería cooperative traces nearly 2 million kg of tomatoes per day by origin, greenhouse, and quality.
• From analytics to AI: source-captured, digitized records enabled harvest predictions for berry growers in Costa de Huelva. Hispatec’s AI platform “Margaret” and new genAI agents now deliver natural-language reports via WhatsApp, trained exclusively on real production data to avoid hallucinations.
• See it live: demos at Fruit Attraction 2026 (Innova & Tech, Hall 5, stand 12). Operations span Spain, Portugal, and Italy.

How ready is your operation to deliver this level of real-time traceability, labor visibility, and AI-enabled decision support?

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