Adagin Technologies – Savant Technology Incubator

Investing in Impact

P4G has awarded the partnership with US $350,000 in grant funding. 

South African farmers, like their counterparts worldwide, are grappling with challenges such as reduced crop yields due to erratic weather patterns, including droughts and floods. Moreover, they are encountering escalating labor and fertilizer costs, making agriculture increasingly difficult in terms of profitability and sustainability. Addressing these challenges, there’s a demand for an integrated system that enables farmers to manage and enhance their yield and profitability effectively. 

Adagin is a solution that combines hardware trackers with cloud-based software. This integration allows farmers to digitize and monitor the entire production process from field to pallet. On the packaging front, smart scales accurately measure the weight of each punnet (small basket) and box of produce, optimizing packing efficiency and thus improving overall yield and sustainability. This efficiency reduces the need for excessive fertilizers and pesticides. 

Additionally, Adagin’s integrated Quality Control (QC) module proactively identifies and addresses quality issues, protecting shipments from potential rejection and forced destruction due to the inclusion of subpar products. This proactive approach significantly reduces food loss, contributing to overall sustainability in the agricultural sector. The technology reduces human error and allows farmers to track worker productivity and incentivize high-performing workers while also ensuring that those who need it receive the training they require. Adagin’s Precision Packing modules allow for traceability that can track a product from a shelf to the individual packer on the farm. 

Adagin generates revenue through its different products or modules: Precision Harvesting, Precision Packing and Precision Job Costing. Each of these involves a one-time hardware and implementation fee with a monthly or seasonal subscription. An added feature of Adagin is that it is integrates with popular bookkeeping products and can be used to pay farm workers and streamline bookkeeping processes. 

Between April to June 2024, Adagin strengthened its digital infrastructure to enable a quicker customer onboarding process. The startup also introduced a rental model that allows customers to try the product without committing to an upfront capital expense. The idea behind this strategy is to encourage the adoption of the enhanced products in the marketplace. 

Adagin has also been making strides on its journey to investment-readiness. The startup has been working on its go-to-market strategy with Grindstone and collaborated with Wageningen and Stellenbosch universities to enhance its Environmental-Social-Governance framework. The partnership is currently collaborating with both universities on a knowledge product that will review productivity benchmarks, targets for improving crop yields and agricultural efficiency, and how Adagin’s smart scale technology can improve productivity and reduce waste. The product will consider data from South Africa and share recommendations that can be applied by farmers. 

Adagin was also selected one of 8 companies from South Africa to attend the Vivatech technology conference in Paris, where it met with industry leaders and forged valuable connections that could lead to market expansion opportunities. As part of its marketing strategy, Adagin participated in several events and campus visits in the Netherlands to explore opportunities for pilot projects that could showcase its technology.  

Adagin’s technology is currently utilized on over 130 farms, and it is planning activities to automate its customer onboarding system, onboard 10 new customers, and process an additional 1 million Rand (US $52,730) in bonuses to farm workers. It also plans on developing a report outlining waste generation patterns and identifies areas for improvements. It will train 50 female farm workers to use Adagin technology. The business will work on expanding its footprint in South Africa, Spain and the Netherlands. 

During the P4G funding period, Adagin aims to raise US $1.1 million in additional investment. 

Savant will assist Adagin in refining its technology to ensure it is market ready, while Grindstone will help Adagin with its go-to-market strategy and geographical expansion.  

The partnership comprises the following partners: Adagin Technologies (lead business partner); Savant Technology Incubator (lead administrative partner); Grindstone.

About Savant Technology Incubator: Savant Technology Incubator is South Africa’s dedicated technical assistance provider for deep-tech hardware, empowering science and engineering-based innovation with the resources, capital, and market access required to test their innovations locally before scaling internationally.

About Grindstone: Grindstone is a structured entrepreneurship development programme that assists high-growth innovation-driven companies to get the fundamental building blocks in place to scale quickly and become sustainable and fundable. It has been assisting early-stage innovative startups since 2013, and has helped over 160 entrepreneurs scale their businesses, become fundable, exit-ready, or exit successfully. This support has extended to entrepreneurs from various backgrounds, who all needed Grindstone to scale their business to the next level.