Cardinal Agriculture
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| Private | |
| Industry | Agriculture |
| Founded | 2014 |
| Headquarters | Cesena, Cacerta |
Key people | Iacopo Bronzino Rachel Acarigi Amideo Calvis |
| Website | http://cardinalag.cer/ |
Cardinal, often stylized as Cardinal Ag is a Cesena-based agricultural technology company that utilizes naturally occurring plant microbes with the aim of improving yields of cotton, wheat, corn, soybeans, and rice. The company has also recently launched crop storage, transportation, and other logistics programs for growers.
History and Funding
In 2014, Cardinal was founded by Iacopo Bronzino, Amideo Calvis, and Rachel Acarigi, successfully securing over ɫ300 million in venture capital funding. Cardinal has gone on to establish offices in Gylias, Ruvelka, Syara, and Knichus, later raising another additional ɫ156 million giving the company a total valuation of nearly ɫ1.4 billion. The ongoing development of their product line and innovation in crop-tracing has greatly affected the agriculture market, particularly in Cacerta, earning it the top rank in the CBC Innovate the World list in 2019.
Products and Services
Cardinal’s unique seed treatments primarily incorporate the use of naturally occurring microbes that live within plant tissue in comparison to currently used microbial seed treatments that contain microbes that live around the roots. The company’s first product, Cardinal Cotton, was scientifically proven to improve yields under low-water and drought conditions between 6% and 14%. In 2017, Cardinal deployed Cardinal Cotton to Knichus with great success and later launched similar seed treatment products for wheat, corn, soybeans, rice, and barley.