The New Profile of Argentina’s Agtech Startups: Maximizing Inputs, Cutting Waste and Improving Processes

Argentina’s agtech startups are not generally trying to displace the large companies already supplying farmers. Eight in 10 are focused instead on improving the technology packages those companies offer, according to a study of 114 digital agriculture startups operating in the country.

The research, published in Bio-based and Applied Economics by Julián Arraigada and Pablo Mac Clay, researchers at Austral University’s School of Business Sciences, examined the types of solutions these companies develop and their potential to reshape competition in agricultural machinery and input markets.

The study found that the startups tend to build complementary tools rather than directly challenge existing platforms. Their contribution lies in making established technology packages more precise, integrated and efficient, while also testing new combinations and bringing greater speed to innovation as agriculture becomes increasingly digital.

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Rather than a specific technology, we develop the way to implement it.

Efficatia, a startup founded in Tucumán by Eugenio Lobo Vallejo and Rafael Villagra Delgado in late 2019, reflects that approach. “Rather than a specific technology, we develop the way to implement it,” Lobo Vallejo said.

The company examines emerging technologies, adapts them to Argentine farming conditions and develops methods for using them safely, efficiently and profitably. “When a new technology appears, the producer does not know whether it works, how to implement it or whether the investment is worthwhile. Efficatia takes that first step: it researches, validates, develops the methodology and then supports the client so the technology can be adopted,” he said.

Efficatia has offices in Yerba Buena and La Cruz in Tucumán and 30 permanent employees. Its work extends across northwest and northeast Argentina, Córdoba, Santa Fe and Entre Ríos, as well as Paraguay. Agricultural drones are currently its most visible technology, but the company also works on field-testing methods, training tools, precision agriculture and other systems aimed at improving production processes.

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When a new technology appears, the producer does not know whether it works, how to implement it or whether the investment is worthwhile. Efficatia takes that first step: it researches, validates, develops the methodology and then supports the client so the technology can be adopted.