New funding of 5 million euros from international and local investors has lifted the Greek market for buying and selling agricultural products, Wikifarmerwhich directly connects manufacturers with various customer-customers such as hotels, craft and food businesses, grocers, gourmet (B2B) stores, etc.

“More than 10,000 manufacturers from Greece, Italy and Spain are registered on our platform, and more than 6,000 wholesale or retail buyers have bought products. We are trying to digitize the agricultural production of the Mediterranean, which is also the vegetable garden of Europe, thus attracting buyers from all over Europe.” Ilias Sousis reports “K”., the former head of YouTube at Google, who co-founded Wikifarmer, an Athens-based start-up, with agriculturist Petros Sago. The new funding round has been led by German venture capital Point Nine – Revolut’s first investor, Delivery Hero – and has been joined by existing investors such as Greek venture capital Metavallon VC and IKEA founder’s son Matthias Kamprad. New angel investors also participated, including the co-founder of Workable, Nikos Moraitakis.

Although the company started out as the “Wikipedia” of the agricultural sector, where farmers can get useful and simplified information about primary production, it soon turned into a wholesale marketplace through which customers purchase products from producers (fruits, vegetables, olive oil, honey, etc.). .). .) in good quality and competitive prices. This process cuts down on a large chain of intermediaries, increasing the farmer’s profit margin on the one hand, and reducing purchasing costs for the final customer, i.e. hotel, grocer, wholesaler, etc., on the other. At the same time, by reducing the intermediate “links” of the chain, the transportation of products is protected, and the company provides buyers and suppliers, saving money until the goods are delivered in proper quality.

“We started by creating a Wikipedia for the agricultural sector to simplify its specialized knowledge, since many scientific articles are not easy to understand. Therefore, our strategy was to bring farmers from all over the world together to become sellers of agricultural products in the market that we have developed to solve the biggest problem in the agricultural sector, which is nothing less than the existence of intermediaries.” explains Mr. Sussy. “It’s a win-win process because both the farmer and the customer win,” he notes, citing the example of a Greek coffee chain that managed to reduce the cost of purchasing oranges by 20% thanks to the producers. the providers it has defined on the platform. At the same time, the supplier increased profits by 60%. “We saw that although farmers produce the most valuable product, they end up making less money all along the chain,” he notes.

With the new financing, the company intends to facilitate the transportation of products through agreements with carriers that will provide the best prices for buyers and producers, while it plans to add a financial instrument to facilitate the payment of small producers and the acceptance of credit by the company itself. It is also expected to offer agricultural quality control or insurance services, and plans to increase its workforce from 19 to 40-45.