Seedwiz Plant Variety OPTimizer Boosting Crop Growth for Global Food Security

Project Information

SeedOPT

Grant agreement ID: 827597

DOI

10.3030/827597

Project closed

EC signature date 12 July 2018

Start date 1 August 2018

End date 31 January 2019

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

SEEDWIZ LTD
Israel

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SeedOPT (Seedwiz Plant Variety OPTimizer Boosting Crop Growth for Global Food Security)

Reporting period: 2018-08-01 to 2019-01-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Farming for food is complex. Farmers must consider a large number of parameters in selecting seeds. But, in today’s market, they have very limited visibility to all the options. With the global population growing fast and 60% more food needed by 2050, this is becoming critical.
Seedwiz’s SeedOPT platform empowers farmers with the knowledge to select optimal plant variety seeds. It is based on detailed seed data. Its AI algorithms analyze a large number of properties per seed variety which are presented to the farmer in a comparative matrix. It enables them to grow crops optimally. The accumulated data in SeedOPT is highly valuable to the agri-eco-system as it includes many insights. It offers a win-win model to all market stakeholders.
The objectives included acquiring a deeper understanding of the EU market, stakeholders, and validating SeedOPT’s technical fit as well as validating the planned business models and distribution channels.
Following the study, we concluded that the need in Europe is large as expected, but there are adjustments that need to be done to the platform, to the go to market plan and business model, in order to succeed in Europe.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Within this study, 6 activities where performed: Market analysis, Stakeholder engagement, technological fit, economic analysis, business model fit, and IPR check. It was done using online searching, consultations with advisors/coaches, and demonstrations to stakeholders and customers. Over 30 stakeholders were visited in Spain and Italy, 26 LOIs received and one cooperation agreement reached.
The study led us to revise the business model to fit the exclusivity-based distribution of seeds in Europe, create updated go-to-market and financial plans, and define the technical updates needed in the platform to fit EU market needs and local languages.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Seedwiz plans to begin executing its plan and will submit a Phase-2 proposal in order to assist in financing it. Once the project starts, technical adjustments to the platform and population of the seed database with EU-relevant seed varieties will be done. Then, a commercial pilot will begin after 12 months with thousands of farmers, to be followed by a commercial launch after 18 months. The expected impact of SeedOPT in 3-4 will be apparent in increased yield, crop quality and better efficiency in farms that use it. In addition, the data accumulated from the farmers and seed companies will start becoming valuable to the entire agri-eco-system.

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