Adagin Technologies – Savant Foundry NPC

Investing in Impact

P4G awarded the partnership with about 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. Against these headwinds, there’s a demand for an integrated system that enables farmers to manage and enhance their yield and profitability effectively. 

Adagin’s solution combined hardware trackers with cloud-based software. This integration allowed farmers to digitize and monitor the entire production process from field to pallet. On the packaging front, smart scales accurately measured the weight of each punnet (small basket) and box of produce, optimizing packing efficiency and improving overall yield by reducing food loss. This efficiency reduced the need for excessive fertilizers and pesticides. 

Key achievements during the P4G grant period between 2024 and 2026 are as follows:

• US $370,310 in investment (commercial and non-commercial) raised
• More than 8,714 individuals positively affected with greater climate resilience
• More than 3,800 farm workers paid and incentivized above minimum wage
• 62 women farm workers trained and promoted into quality control officer roles
• More than 7,193 tons of food loss prevented 

Adagin generated revenue through different products or modules: Precision Harvesting, Precision Packing and Precision Job Costing. Each of these involved a one-time hardware and implementation fee with a monthly or seasonal subscription. An added feature of Adagin was that it integrated with popular bookkeeping products streamlining wage payments and other administrative processes. 

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 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 ensuring that workers 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. 

The Adagin – Savant Analytic partnership focused on strengthening the startup’s core digital platform and hardware system to support scalability. This led to investments in cloud infrastructure, UX/UI design, ESG-aligned hardware lifecycles and more. Adagin also became a member of South Africa’s e-waste body (E-WASA) to align with circular economy principles around its devices and scales. To strengthen its business model, Adagin piloted different models such as flexible hardware rental models, reseller and support agent models, and developing trained to help women become proficient in using the technology. The rental model allowed customers to try the product without committing to an upfront capital expense and the startup prioritized marketing efforts to socialize this offering. 

Adagin also made strides on its journey to investment-readiness. The startup worked on its go-to-market strategy with Grindstone and collaborated with Wageningen and Stellenbosch universities to enhance its Environmental-Social-Governance framework. In addition, it strengthened its brand visibility through website improvements, newsletters and targeted stakeholder engagements. Field days with farmers and exporters, and participation in international trade events helped generate new business leads. The startup also entered a strategic partnership with Metaship to support end-to-end traceability for exports and ensuring compliance within the larger global digital ecosystem. 

Adagin was selected as one of eight 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. The business also conducted visits to the Rotterdam Port in the Netherlands to align its data with EU import requirements. Other notable international event participation included the 2025 P4G Vietnam Summit and Fruit Logista, which contributed to enhancing Adagin’s exposure globally. 

In addition, the startup’s team also enrolled in a SaaS academy three-month program that helped them build more internal capacity and knowledge on company strategy, sales, market pricing and positioning that will help them scale. 

Adagin engaged deeply with the Netherlands during the P4G funding period and became an agri-logistics partners with the nonprofit GS1 Netherlands, an organization that manages supply chain standards in the Netherlands. The startup also engaged with P4G’s National Platform in South Africa and laid the groundwork for future conversations on national sustainability frameworks. 

Key lessons learned:

• Sequence technical stabilization before large scale onboarding
• Align ESG and data architecture early in the building process
• Establish local agents and flexible commercial models for increasing farmer adoption
• Prioritize blended support (financial, technical and convening) to accelerate investment readiness 

Savant Analytic assisted Adagin in refining its technology to ensure it was market ready, while Grindstone helped Adagin with its go-to-market strategy and geographical expansion. 

The partnership comprised the following partners: Adagin Technologies (lead business partner); Savant Analytic (lead administrative partner); Grindstone.