RootCamp gains KWS as new corporate partner

Hannover, June 07, 2021

KWS, one of the world’s leading plant breeding firms, has become a new business partner of the agri-food tech incubator RootCamp. KWS and RootCamp’s partnership will integrate competencies and strengthen networks in order to increase the pace of digitalization and innovation speed. Agricultural biotechnology, biological seed treatment and weeding technologies are among the strategic topics.

Ecorobotix robot – picture from 2020 Weeding Robotics Challenge organized by KWS sugar beet division – Photographed by Spieker Fotografie

“We are thrilled that a major player in this industry joins our network as a multi-corporate incubator” said Philipp Rittershaus, Managing Director of RootCamp. “Partnering with an innovative and engaged company like KWS allows us to continue to tap into the sector expertise we have and assist entrepreneurs in developing ways to disrupt the agri-food value chain”.

“We believe that partnerships are crucial to foster progress for the future sustainability of agriculture and farming practices. Working with a fast-growing incubator like RootCamp helps us to reach promising startups in the global ecosystem and jointly drive the innovation journey,” said Dr. Alexander Wiegelmann, KWS's Lead of New Business Ventures.

RootCamp enables partnerships between corporate partners and early-stage as well as later stage startups. Last autumn, the first program for early-stage startups was very successful: five agri-tech startups were supported to further develop their founding ideas, build their network of market participants, pilot their projects with the company K+S and received a cumulative grant up to € 50,000 per startup.

Now with the additional support of KWS, RootCamp seeks for the most-promising and innovative early-stage startups worldwide to apply for the second batch until August 17th, 2021.

Timeline of Batch 2:

August 17th, 2021 – Applications Deadline
September 2021 – Announcement of program participants
November 1st, 2021 – Start of RootCamp Program
February 2022 – Demo Day Batch 2

About RootCamp – A SpinLab Incubator

The RootCamp is an incubator for technology-oriented startups and intrapreneurs from the agri-food tech sector. The incubator was founded in Hannover (Germany) by the SpinLab Accelerator and K+S AG, a fertilizer and salt manufacturer.
RootCamp enables effective collaboration between startups and partnering corporates. The “Acceleration Track” addresses young startups and provides assistance as well as a network of mentors, industry experts and investors. Established startups are taking advantage of the “Fast Track” to rapidly enter collaboration projects with our partners.
The programs run up to twelve months and startups are supported by a grant of up to € 50,000 per team. A fundamental part of the program is the collaboration between startups and corporate partners to develop new ideas and implement suitable solutions, in the form of pilot projects.

Find more information on our website at www.root.camp.

About KWS*
KWS is one of the world’s leading plant breeding companies. More than 5,700 employees in 70 countries generated net sales of around €1.3 billion in fiscal 2019/2020. A company with a tradition of family ownership, KWS has operated independently for more than 160 years. It focuses on plant breeding and the production and sale of seed for corn, sugarbeet, cereals, vegetables, rapeseed and sunflowers. KWS uses leading-edge plant breeding methods to continuously improve yield for farmers and plants’ resistance to diseases, pests and abiotic stress. To that end, the company invested more than €200 million last fiscal year in research and development.

^{* All figures excluding the shares of the equity-accounted companies AGRELIANT GENETICS LLC., AGRELIANT GENETICS INC. and KENFENG – KWS SEEDS CO., LTD.}