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I am dreaming of a highly diverse ag/seed system, diverse in terms of markets, regions, practices, crops and seeds. A system change solution to diversity is required. We are building it.”
Nicolas Enjalbert, Co-Founder and CEO, SeedLinked
Location: United States of America
Founding year: 2018
Number of employees: 2-10
Website: SeedLinked
Revenue: USD 166,000 (2023)
Investment needed for:
- Product development
- Reach 100,000 growers
- Diverse data integration
- AI implementation
- Sales, marketing, and customer services
- Reach up to 450 paying customers by 2028
Value proposition and services:
- Innovation platform
- Collaborative R&D (SaaS)
- Integrated social media
- Prescriptive marketplace
- Connect plant growers and their data
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Enterprise portrait
Biodiversity in seed systems is key to climate resilience, nutrition and dietary health, cultural and culinary diversity, and strengthening local economies. Seed systems, seed biodiversity, and access to varieties adapted to various growing conditions are critically important to transitioning to regenerative and agroecological food systems. Unfortunately, one in five of the world’s plant species is at risk of extinction and hundreds of thousands of farmers’ plant varieties have been substituted by a small number of modern, highly uniform commercial varieties.
SeedLinked was created to reverse this erosion of seed biodiversity. SeedLinked serves the growing segment of specialty-crop growers who are in need of data to inform their most critical annual decision – what variety to grow and where to buy it. SeedLinked also works with independent breeders who currently lack the means to scale up their offerings for this growing seed market that is still dominated by a highly consolidated seed industry.
SeedLinked is a web platform that helps growers identify what specialty crop varieties are best for their conditions. For example, how will tomato seeds perform in San Francisco, California, compared to Accra, Ghana? No one else has this data. SeedLinked helps independent plant breeders by selling plant breeding and trialling software, facilitating seed sales to farmers of well-adapted varieties that will reduce risk, and levelling the plant breeding playing field by increasing efficiency and reducing risk for growers and seed companies of all sizes.
The SeedLinked platform connects farmers, gardeners and plant breeders in North America, Europe, Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and South America and the Caribbean. Its 2019–2022 beta testing programme attracted 35 breeding and trialling organisations (seed companies and universities, etc.) and over 5,500 growers across North America, demonstrating a real need, adoption potential and willingness to participate and provide granular reviews. Results from 550 trials across 44 specialty crops and a total of 1,250 varieties and 160,000 insights show highly significant differences between tested varieties and across traits, producing better on-farm performance predictions compared to current expensive, centralised trialling models. Yet perhaps the most powerful validation is that ratings of gardeners and farmers are highly correlated, opening huge potential for a robust citizen science network facilitated by SeedLinked’s platform.
SeedLinked aims to become cash-flow positive in 2024 by facilitating seed sales, focused on farmers and gardeners under 55 years of age who are already purchasing vegetable seeds online. SeedLinked revenue will come from commission on facilitated transactions (10% fee paid by seed companies), software as a service (SaaS) subscription to seed companies and other trialling organisations, grower premium membership, and advertising revenue.
Key commercial activities
SeedLinked introduces an innovative platform built around three fundamental pillars:
- Collaborative R&D (SaaS): A suite of features, powered by crowdsourced technology, reduces collaborative friction and enhances both results and visibility.
- The company has developed a dynamic application for both iOS and Android platforms.
- Novel and powerful statistical models have been validated.
- Advanced analytics and proven
- Integrated social media – connect & interact: A peer-to-peer solution with innovative features and design is revolutionising seed discussions, making it the number one topic among growers.
- Prescriptive marketplace – explore and find: SeedLink aims to be a trusted source of seed information. Its platform is powered by grower insights, helping buyers make choices with less risk for new products, and plant the right seed to maximise their return on investment (ROI). Buyers can easily find solutions to their needs and make purchases from multiple sources with just a few clicks.
Agroecology impact highlights
- 70% of food is still produced by 500 million farmers with less than 25 acres, and consumer trends are leaning away from commodity crops and high-input production models. SeedLinked targets producers who are already using organic, regenerative and agroecological practices. It helps these farmers by improving specialty crop competitiveness, production stability and resilience.
- One of the highest ROI decisions a grower can make is choosing the right variety, which can generate a performance increase of up to 50% and reduce reliance on inputs. Due to a lack of available data in the specialty crop seed market, growers currently base production choices on personal experience and recommendations, resulting in lower rates of new product adoption and riskier choices. By crowdsourcing data, SeedLinked can reveal regional and context-specific adaptation. Selecting the best seed for their context based on quantifiable metrics that matter to them – whether those be yield, time of maturity or disease resistance, etc. – helps farmers be more profitable and climate resilient.
- SeedLinked benefits universities, non-profits and regional seed companies by lowering variety development costs and improving product placement.
- SeedLinked’s platform has enabled non-profit and research organisations that collect indigenous, heirloom, and other traditional varieties to connect with producers and with plant breeders to share information, share seeds, and adapt and distribute a diverse range of plant varieties. SeedLinked enables the global seed and production system to be more resilient by making it decentralised, responsive to grower needs and evolutive.
Main barriers and needs
- Network expansion: SeedLinked’s existing partnerships with industry influencers, including universities, nonprofits, established breeders and organic grower groups, is a competitive advantage. Key customers include University of British Columbia, Organic Seed Alliance, Seed Savers exchange, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), World Vegetable Centre, and University of Wisconsin-Madison, with combined networks of more than two million farmers and gardeners. SeedLinked seeks to grow its partnerships with respected organisations.
- Growth financing: SeedLinked will raise venture capital to scale its seed marketplace and trial software in 2024.
SeedLinked aims to use increased finance to overcome its main barriers and unlock significant growth. The company seeks to expand its network by growing its partnerships with established industry influencers, including universities, nonprofits, and organic grower groups. SeedLinked also plans to raise venture capital in 2024 to scale its seed marketplace and trial software. The investment will be used to enhance product development, including scaling the architecture to reach 100,000 growers, integrating climate, soil and management data, and implementing AI to leverage its ½ million insights and climate data. This will add exponential value to growers and breeders worldwide and allow interoperability with existing business platforms. Additionally, the funds will be used to augment sales, marketing and customer service efforts, with a goal of reaching 450 paying customers by 2028. The investment will also enable the company to leverage its traction and trust to boost platform adoption and enhance customer service, providing onboarding and trial-breeding expertise to guide its clients.
What could increased finance unlock?
Use investment to scale:
- Product development:
- Scaling architecture to reach 100,000 growers
- Climate, soil and management data integration
- AI implementation using our climate data and ½ million insights to bring exponential value to grower and breeders worldwide
- Interoperability to connect to existing business platforms.
- Sales, marketing, and customer services:
- Marketing – leverage its traction and trust to boost behaviour change and platform adoption
- Sales team – reach 450 paying customers by 2028
- Customer services team – onboarding and trial – breeding expertise to guide its clients.
Financial capital stack
In 2023, SeedLinked used the following capital stack to finance its operations:
- Revenue from SaaS trialling: USD 92,294
- Revenue from sub-contractor grant project: USD 63,158
- Investment capital: USD 80,000