ABOUT INCERES InCeres is a software development company that has developed the Systems Precision Farming for the management of agriculture. InCeres inceres.com.br Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil
Your name and title/role with the company? My name is Leonardo Menegatti and along with Nelson Pozzi, we are founders at InCeres. I am CEO for inCeres and Nelson is COO. Our mission is to make agribusiness more competitive, gathering data from soil, plant and climate conditions and supporting decisions driving to higher yield, sustainability, costs, risk and credit. How did you get the idea to start InCeres? Was it an epiphany or was it something more practical than that? It was 2007 and I was growing my previous company very fast, a precision farming consultancy dealing with lots of data spread on several laptops. I wondered what would be possible if all this data and more could be in one place and since then I am pursuing that vision. Now they have fancy names for this, such as data lake, but for me is science and handwork. And a lot of hard work. Thanks to the partnership we developed with our customers – crop consultants, cooperatives, farmers and dealers, we have reached more than 7.2 million acres in Brazil, with more than 500 agronomists working in our platform, delivering soil management and plant nutrition for more than 7,000 farms across 18 states in Brazil. Together, we are reaching higher yields and optimizing the farmer’s resources –fertilizers and machinery. What does it mean to InCeres to be part of Plug and Play North Dakota’s Agtech Program? It means a lot for sure. To be part of an acceleration program in a state where agriculture is the base of the economical strength is very satisfying for us. The rich soil, direct seeding and soil protection are aligned with our DNA on soil and plant nutrition. This participation gives us emotional support to be resilient when hard things come. To have my work recognized by such a player gives me satisfaction. This is the meaning, to validate the direction we are heading is feasible and make people believe along with us.
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If your product/service was already being used by everyone globally, what impact would that have? We would make farmers be more efficient, driving their resources where they will be more efficient and profitable. Fertilizing their fields with more efficiency. With that, we would produce more food in a more competitive and resilient way for the incoming population of the world and make a difference for the people where one dollar is the difference between eating or not eating every day. You’ve already accomplished a lot to get to where you are now. What advice would you have for those just starting their agtech startup adventures? Do not give up your vision. You have to know if the vision comes from deep inside you, and if that is the case, do not give up. Hard things will come. Harder things will come yet, there will be moments you do not see the way out and those moments are those you trust in God, your faith is tested. This is the moment to be closer to your clients even if you are physically apart from them. What’s your biggest current staffing (or workload) pain point? Our biggest challenge is to initiate our work in the US, where we are unknown yet. But we have Plug and Play to support us, a well-known partner with recognition for global excellence. We will handwork to build this and other partnerships. North Dakota, Minnesota and the Upper Midwest are embracing Agtech like never before. When you’ve completed the Plug and Play North Dakota Agtech Program, where do you think will be your optimal headquarters location and why? That is wonderful to hear. Being close to our clients is very important, so we can understand how we can solve their problems. We think that we have options beyond being there physically. As a foreign company and with value to deliver, we will create partnerships to support farmers. Being embraced by the society certainly helps a lot. We would love to take the partnership we created with crop consultants, dealers, cooperatives to your beloved state. This magazine reaches 15,000+ farmers. In a few sentences, what would you like to tell them? We will keep working close to our clients and customers there as well as in Brazil because we believe that solutions and value are created based on collaboration. We really want to support American farmers to be even more competitive. You can count on InCeres. Thank you.