CLAAS’ CVC Unit Seed Green Innovations Invests in AI Agronomy Startup Pheno-Inspect

CLAAS, through its Corporate Venture Capital unit Seed Green Innovations, has made a strategic investment in Pheno-Inspect, a German AgTech startup specializing in AI-driven, image-based agronomic field analysis. The pioneering technology enables a significant acceleration of data-driven processes in agriculture.

Pheno-Inspect, a spin-off from the University of Bonn’s excellence cluster PhenoRob, has developed a cloud-based platform that transforms high-resolution drone imagery into actionable agronomic insights. The solution enables farmers, agribusinesses and research organizations to analyze crop development, stress factors and treatment effects quickly, objectively, and at scale – without specialized hardware or external service providers. “Pheno-Inspect represents exactly the kind of innovation we are looking for: practical, scalable technology with clear value for farmers and agricultural partners. Our investment is designed as a long-term partnership focused on jointly shaping the future of digital agriculture,” emphasizes Martin von Hoyningen-Huene, CTO of the CLAAS Group.

Accelerating data-driven processes in farming
The investment reflects a shared vision of accelerating data-driven, sustainable agriculture. By combining Pheno-Inspect’s advanced AI and software capabilities with CLAAS’ deep expertise in agricultural machinery and farming workflows, both partners aim to unlock new levels of precision, efficiency, and usability in digital agronomy.

Christian Poschmann, Senior Vice President Global Engineering Technology at CLAAS, adds: "Digitizing agriculture boosts efficiency, sustainability, and competitiveness. Pheno-Inspect’s AI platform meets this need with high-resolution field analyses, which enhance current digital methods. For CLAAS, the investment in Pheno-Inspect is a targeted move to access and support innovative digital agronomy technologies early."

Dr. Philipp Lottes, Co-Managing Director and CTO at Pheno-Inspect highlights: “Closing our first financing round marks an important milestone in Pheno-Inspect’s development. We are excited about the potential of our partnership with CLAAS and will use the new capital to further expand our interdisciplinary team and consistently advance our AI technology. With our FarmAnalyzer™ platform, we are making single-plant-level field analytics available across the entire growing season—practical, cost-effective, and directly usable for farmers, without the need for specialized hardware.”

Dr. Josef Exler, Co-Managing Director and Chief Growth Officer at Pheno-Inspect adds:

"Our ambition is to deliver measurable value to farmers and custom applicators across Europe – particularly through reductions in crop protection and fertilizer inputs, as well as by digitizing the traditional field scouting process. From this perspective, the participation of a leading agricultural machinery company such as CLAAS sends a strong signal for the growing relevance of digital agronomy and AI-based decision support in the future of farming".