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“Disruptive technology, in other words, artificial intelligence, data, and automation, can help the agricultural sector overcome its biggest challenge: to produce more food in every square meter of land, with less impact,” said Solinftec CEO Britaldo Hernandez. “We are excited to partner with Solinftec in their next stage of growth to become the ‘operating system’ for intelligent, sustainable, and resilient farming.” “As climate change and other disruptions continue to put pressure on agricultural productivity and food costs, we need to scale solutions that can help farmers increase productivity per acre while reducing input usage and increasing their responsiveness to changing climate and weather conditions,” notes Sanjay Wagle, Managing Director at the Lightsmith Group.
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Lightsmith’s investment is part of its focus on investing in growth-stage climate resilience solutions companies – technology companies in agriculture and food, energy, water, finance, and supply chains that can help to assess and manage the increased risks and impacts from climate change. Solinftec recently added to its farm operations management platform with the launch of its robot to autonomously scan and monitor fields, providing farmers and agronomists with a new level of data to further increase yields, avoid wasted inputs, and lower environmental impacts. Little more than two years (and one pandemic) later, and the company announced its closing on 60 million in growth capital led by the Lightsmith Group that it stated it will use to further expand its digital farm platform in North and South America. ALICE AI is an integrated, end-to-end farm operations management platform covering all key operations and equipment on farms, including planting, spraying, harvesting, and tendering. Solinftec’s farm operations management software, powered by its artificial intelligence platform, ALICE AI, allows customers to optimally schedule and plan their farming operations and to make real-time decisions and adjustments to ensure the best, real-world results. The company deploys sensors, computers, and displays in farm equipment to provide customers with a rich set of real-time, in-field data on crops, equipment, inputs, and weather conditions. Since 2007, Solinftec has been developing solutions to solve the practical challenges faced by growers in managing their complex farming operations. The company is based in Aracatuba, Brazil and West Lafayette, Indiana, and has more than 700 employees worldwide. Solinftec serves 85% of Brazilian sugarcane growers, the top 5 grains producers in Brazil, and GROWMARK, one of North America’s largest agricultural cooperatives. Solinftec’s digital farm operating system is used to manage more than 27 million acres in Brazil, the United States, and across Latin America, by growers, cooperatives, and agricultural retailers for field crops such as sugarcane, soy, corn, and cotton, and perennial crops such as citrus, coffee, and timber. Additional undisclosed investors are also participating in the round. Lightsmith is joining existing investors in the company, Unbox Capital, which also participated in the round, and Circularis Partners (TPG ART). The investment will enable the company to further expand its digital farm operations platform in North America and South America. Solinftec, one of the world’s largest independent precision agriculture companies, has secured a $60 million growth investment round led by the Lightsmith Group. I highly recommend Richard Smith’s involvement to any individual or organisation looking for a personable, well-informed and supportive approach to enhancing development and achieving excellence.The investment will help Solinftec expand its digital farm operations platform leveraging real-time data to make farming practices more efficient, sustainable, and resilient to changing weather and climate conditions. Much of the input that he has provided to myself and to Snowsports New Zealand (formerly Winter Performance Programme) still influences our coach development programme, our coaching team values and our culture. I continue to seek feedback and support from Richard after meeting him over 15 years ago.
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Richard’s ability to apply theory into practice, his wealth of high-performance knowledge, his caring and empathetic nature were of high value to me and have helped guide my performance and development. Richard Smith stands out as one of the best, providing me with just the right level of support and challenge in my formative years as a high-performance coach. “I have been lucky enough to have many great mentors in my coaching career. Head Coach Park & Pipe Snowsports NZ High Performance Programme