Radar Agtech Brasil reveals that agricultural startups are more spread out across the country.

The growth in the number of emerging technology-based companies in the agricultural sector is slowing down, and geographic concentration is beginning to decrease with advances in important production regions. These are some of the conclusions of the sixth edition of the Agtech Brazil Radar. The survey, conducted by Embrapa, SP Ventures, and Homo Ludens for the year 2025, portrays the innovation ecosystem in agriculture, focusing on innovation environments, startups, and investors. The data shows that the South has surpassed the Southeast, becoming the region with the largest number of innovation environments. Of the 390 environments mapped in the country, 37.18% are in Paraná, Santa Catarina, and Rio Grande do Sul, and 32.82% in São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, and Espírito Santo. Rio Grande do Sul stands out, with a significant increase in the number of incubators. According to the coordinator of the Agtech Radar and Embrapa analyst Aurélio Favarin, the data shows a clear action by the state government in encouraging innovation. “Incubators work in the initial phase of the innovation process. It makes sense that a state, thinking about the development of an ecosystem, starts with incubators. Most are linked to state universities. There is a plan for this, to create conditions for startups to begin,” analyzes Favarin. The Southeast Region has a greater number of hubs, accelerators, and ecosystems with governance, which shows a more advanced stage of maturity compared to the South Region. While one is focused on acceleration and business development, the other focuses on the initial stages of startup formation. :: Deceleration and maturity Regarding the number, the survey counted 2,075 agtechs in 2025 in Brazil, 5% more than the previous year. The number indicates a slowdown in growth when compared to the historical series that began in 2019. According to the authors of the survey, moderate growth indicates greater maturity of the ecosystem and consolidation of business models. “Between 2019 and 2021, there was a boom in innovation environments and investment funds, which contributed to a large increase in the number of agtechs. Over time, these initiatives will settle down, with the most well-structured ones remaining. The ecosystem remains relevant, but with less expressive growth. This is expected behavior and shows the maturity of the innovation ecosystem,” analyzes Embrapa researcher Vitor Mondo. The Southeast and South regions concentrate 79% of agtechs, with 55.2% and 23.7%, respectively. However, the data shows that, despite the historical concentration, there is proportional growth of agtechs in the North, Northeast, and Midwest regions, in a gradual geographical expansion of the ecosystem, approaching areas important for agricultural production. In 2019, the North and Northeast regions together had only 5% of agtechs. Currently, the North region has 7.6% and the Northeast 6.5%. The Midwest region has 7.1%.” According to the data, in 2025 the state of Amazonas will have 17 agtech companies, Goiás 15, and Mato Grosso 14. Minas Gerais and Rondônia, with 13 each, were the states that gained the most agtech companies. Rio Grande do Sul (down 27), Tocantins and the Federal District (down 7), and São Paulo (down 6) registered a reduction in the number of agtech companies. “This trend occurs at the same time as the proportion of agtech companies operating on farms grows. This is a positive sign, indicating that companies are at a level of maturity where they can directly access rural producers,” assesses Mondo. :: Areas of operation Brazilian agtech companies are predominantly in the on-farm (41.1%) and off-farm (40.5%) segments. The category “Innovative foods and new food trends” leads the ranking of areas of operation, with 15% of agtech companies. "Rural property management systems" comes in second place with 8%, and "Integrating platforms for systems, solutions, and data" appears in third with 7.5% of the startups analyzed. Artificial intelligence is widely disseminated among agtechs — 83% of companies use AI in their processes or products, and 35% of them have AI as the core of their value proposition. "This data indicates that digital technology has ceased to be a one-off differentiator and has become a structural layer of the business model," says Aurélio Favarin. :: Open Innovation In addition to presenting the survey data on innovation environments, agtechs, and investors, the Radar Agtech Brasil lists cases of open innovation in the agricultural sector with the involvement of Embrapa and an experience in Espírito Santo as an example of public sector action in locally incentivizing innovation. All material can be accessed for free at radaragtech.com.br/ :: Evolution of the innovation ecosystem The Radar Agtech Brasil began production in 2019. Since then, the publication has evolved methodologically and has consolidated itself as a reference for understanding the innovation ecosystem in the agricultural sector. “Radar Agtech Brasil functions as a living map of innovation in the Brazilian countryside. It reveals talents, connects ideas and guides investments, transforming data into concrete opportunities for agriculture. By integrating startups, science and the market, Embrapa expands its role as a bridge between knowledge and transformation, driving an increasingly dynamic, digital and sustainable ecosystem for the country,” emphasizes Silvia Massruhá, president of Embrapa and one of those responsible for the beginning of Radar Agtech, when she held the general leadership of Embrapa Agricultura Digital (SP). Initially focused on quantitative data, today the publication presents qualitative data on startups, innovation environments and investors and analyzes this information. The periodicity of the survey also helps to understand the evolution of the ecosystem. “The next cycle of the ecosystem will depend less on numerical expansion and more on the quality of connections between technology, capital, governance, and production. In this process, the Agtech Radar acts not only as a database but as a platform for the continuous production of strategic intelligence and institutional articulation,” says Luiz Sakuda, co-founder and partner of Homo Ludens Inovação e Conhecimento. The transformations portrayed in each edition of the Agtech Radar Brazil allow us to understand, for example, the change in the profile of investments in the sector. “We believe that the market is, in fact, experiencing a new moment. In the last two or three years, the environment for raising capital has become more challenging, which has demanded a lot of resilience from entrepreneurs. As a consequence, we see startups being built today with a mindset more focused on efficiency and profitability from the initial stages. This movement reflects a greater maturity of the ecosystem and a natural adaptation to a more selective capital scenario,” says Pedro Jábali, of SP Ventures. The consolidation of the survey led to a partnership with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) for the development of the Agtech Radar Latin America and Caribbean. The survey is currently underway and will be released in June.

This text was translated by machine from Brazilian Portuguese.