Space AG, the Peruvian agricultural startup coming to Chile in 2022

The Agritech company monitors more than 100,000 hectares belonging to 90 farms and is present in six countries.

Technology is an indispensable tool in agriculture today and using software to monitor crops is already a reality at agricultural companies around the world. This new scenario is what prompted Peruvians César Urrutia and Guillermo de Vivanco in 2017 to found Space AG, a startup dedicated to monitoring intensive fruit crops such as blueberries, grapes, avocados and citrus fruit with satellite images obtained from drones, allowing production to be automated.

The Agritech company currently monitors more than 100,000 hectares belonging to 90 farms and is present in six countries. Its technology is already being used in Chile by the company Hortifrut, but this year the company will formally establish itself in the country, a project that will be led by the agronomist Paula Del Valle, a former executive of Hortifrut, who took over last November as country manager of Space AG.

In late 2021, Urrutia told Diario Financiero that the expansion process to both Chile and Mexico meant raising US$750,000 in capital, in addition to another US$420,000 raised in a pre-seed stage. The main investor, contributing US$400,000, was the U.S. fund The Yield Lab Latam, which specializes in Agrifoodtech. As foreign companies operating in Chile, both The Yield Lab Latam and Space AG are supported by InvestChile.

In the same interview, Urrutia said that the company expects to end 2021 with sales of US$750,000, and for 2022, following its entry into the Chilean market, it estimates revenues of US$2-3 million.

New Technology

In addition to the Airview tool, which makes it possible to observe farmland and obtain detailed information on crop behavior thanks to its drone analysis service, the company has developed the Raptorview and Raptorforms technologies.

Raptoview brings together the important agricultural KPIs in one place and it can detect potential sources of problems using satellite and drone images. It also detects potential problem areas and analyzes how they affect the outcome of the agricultural season; integrates different systems into one place to monitor irrigation, plant health and production; and receives alerts and notifications every time there is a change in the weather that may affect the crops.

Raptorforms digitizes the field notebook and collects data from a mobile device to make better decisions with timely information; delivers a report as soon as the evaluation is finished so that applications can be made that same day; quickly detects who is achieving yield and quality goals; and makes it possible to have all phenological evaluations in one place with a single application.

Para saber más sobre las oportunidades de inversión en la industria alimentaria en Chile, revisa el siguiente artículo.