Finnish startup Soil Scout raises massive late-seed round to help agriculture, sports, and city green areas better manage water reserves

Understanding what’s happening below the soil surface is critical for many industries. Today’s solutions for measuring environmental conditions are based on wires and cables or a single observation pole, which are impractical, inefficient, labor-intensive or unable to assess spatial variability. Enter Soil Scout, a Finnish startup that Scout provides critical insight into data from deep below the surface wirelessly, enabling 365×24 insight and profiling which allows our customers to perform better, understand their operations deeper and reduce water and energy use by up to 50%.

Today Soil Scout, announced it has closed a significant late-seed funding round to scale production so they can help more farmers, sports venues, and managers of green spaces around the world better manage their water resources. The round was led by Husqvarna Group, with private investment closing out the round. The total amount of the investment was not disclosed.

Soil Scout takes monitoring to the next level by providing a detailed view into in-field variation, enabling our customers to expand the Precision Agriculture approach to all land use challenges, be that smart farming, irrigation control or turf quality optimization.

Founded in 2013, Soil Scout does what no one has done before: sending data signals out of the ground wirelessly, from much deeper than previously possible. Soil Scout massively optimizes water and energy usage by providing permanent buried wireless monitoring. Our small buried “Scout” sensor transmits moisture, temperature and salinity in near real-time from up to 2 meters/ 6 feet below the surface, for up to 20 years, maintenance-free. Our partners include farmers and agricultural producers around the world, golf courses like Desert Mountain Arizona, and arenas like Wembley Stadium.

Unlike above-ground solutions, Soil Scout’s sensor is the only system capable of transmitting moisture, temperature, and salinity data in near real-time from up to 2 meters below the surface, for up to 20 years, maintenance-free.  19th generation farmer, doctor in agrotechnology, and inventor of the Soil Scout solution Johannes Tiusanen built the system to give farmers the data they need to become precision agriculture specialists, both conserving water resources and increasing yields on their land over the long-term.

The system also allows farmers and turf professionals like golf course superintendents and sports venues managers to gain a detailed picture of their soil quality while leaving topsoil, pitches, and greens undisturbed.

“We are extremely excited about the recognition from Husqvarna as they have over a century’s worth of experience in the field and understand the need for water management,” said Soil Scout’s CEO Jalmari Talola. “This funding is important for us as it allows us to improve our collaboration with new and existing partners and customers, as well as extend our product portfolio,” he concluded.

Soil Scout system is utilized by high-profile sports grounds like Wembley Stadium and Citizens Bank Park, Soil Scout’s sensor is the only system capable of transmitting moisture, temperature, and salinity data in near real-time from up to 2 meters below the surface, for up to 20 years, maintenance-free.

“We were particularly impressed with Soil Scout’s track record, with high-profile sports grounds like Wembley Stadium and Citizens Bank Park (home to the Philadelphia Phillies) already utilizing the system,” said Björn Axling, Vice President, Accelerated Innovation & Venturing at Husqvarna Group. “This, in addition to a strong team and the truly impressive capabilities of the Soil Scout system, convinced us to invest in Soil Scout,” he continued.

“The Soil Scout moisture units have exceeded my expectations in their usefulness”, said Mike Boekholder, Director of Field Operations at Citizens Bank Park, home of the Philadelphia Phillies. “I feel like we tend to not overwater as much, making management of the clay a bit less guesswork and a bit more science. Any advantage we can get in providing a better-quality surface, I’ll take. They certainly are a nice tool to have and help us tremendously in that regard.”

Husqvarna Group is a global leading producer of outdoor power products and innovative solutions for forest, park and garden care. The Group sells its products to consumers and professionals in more than 100 countries, with net sales amounting to SEK 41 billion in 2018.