Key Takeaways
- Danish AgTech startup Perplant has raised €1 million in a round backed by private angel investors, the Export and Investment Fund of Denmark (EIFO), the European Space Agency, and Innovation Fund Denmark, with the round led by Agreena chairman Jytte Rosenmaj and former Coop Danmark CEO Kraen Oestergaard Nielsen.
- Perplant's Edge AI sensors mount on existing tractors and scan fields in real time at 2–10 cm resolution, enabling herbicide reductions of up to 90%, fertilizer reductions of 30%, and precise shutoff over groundwater-sensitive areas.
- The company has already mapped over 200,000 hectares across Europe, representing nine times more coverage than all agricultural drones in Denmark combined over the same period.
- For a typical 200-hectare farm, Perplant estimates annual profit gains of approximately €36,000, with the investment fully recovered within the first season of use.
- Founded in 2022 and currently employing 15 people, Perplant operates across 12 countries in Europe and Chile, with plans to expand into the United States.
Perplant Raises €1 Million to Deploy Edge AI Sensors on Tractors Across Europe
Copenhagen-based startup Perplant has closed a €1 million funding round to accelerate the commercial rollout of its AI-based camera sensor system for precision agriculture. According to EU Startups, the round was led by Jytte Rosenmaj, chairman of carbon farming platform Agreena, and Kraen Oestergaard Nielsen, former CEO of Coop Danmark, alongside private angel investors with backgrounds in agriculture and retail. Institutional support came from the Export and Investment Fund of Denmark (EIFO), with additional project grants from the European Space Agency and Innovation Fund Denmark. The company is also backed by early-stage investor Antler and The Footprint Firm.
Founded in 2022 by CEO Rasmus Emil Hansen and CTO Sumod Nandanwar, Perplant develops plug-and-play Edge AI sensors that mount onto the roofs of standard farm tractors, requiring no new machinery purchases or drone deployments.
How The Technology Works
Perplant's sensor box attaches to an existing tractor and scans every plant in a field in real time as the machine moves across it. The system captures individual plant-level photos at a resolution of 2–10 centimetres — far finer than the 10–30 metre resolution typical of commercial satellite imagery — and uses onboard AI to identify where inputs are and are not required. The system then controls the sprayer with centimetre-level precision, switching it off automatically over groundwater-sensitive areas and applying herbicides and fertilizers only where plant-level data justifies their use.
The company claims the approach reduces herbicide use by up to 90% and fertilizer use by 30%, while also enabling fungicide reductions and more precise seeding. For a 200-hectare farm, Perplant estimates these efficiency gains translate into an annual profit increase of roughly €36,000, with full payback within the first season.
“When our AI drives across the field, it documents the field's variation, every single plant, and groundwater-sensitive areas. It removes the bureaucracy for the farmer and ensures that we can shut off the sprayer precisely over groundwater-sensitive areas with centimetre precision,” said Rasmus Emil Hansen, CEO and co-founder, Perplant.
The Perplant Dataset and Expansion Plans
In a LinkedIn announcement accompanying the raise, Perplant stated it has mapped more than 200,000 hectares across Europe to date — nine times more coverage than all agricultural drones in Denmark combined over the same period. The dataset is structured to be verification-ready, providing documentation usable by farmers, banks, insurers, and regulatory authorities.
The company currently operates in Denmark, the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Spain, Ireland, and Chile, and employs 15 people. Expansion into the United States is planned as a next step. The fresh capital will be used to bring the technology to a broader base of conventional farmers — which Perplant estimates represents 98.5% of the global farming population — and to build out the precision data infrastructure that underpins the platform's value to growers and institutions alike.
