Farming has a data problem that Chattanooga-based startup Cultra wants to fix.
The reality is that farmers can’t just go out and start planting crops. They have to test hundreds of soil samples from across their fields in order to create a strong fertilizer plan. That requires help from an agronomist and a lot of time sending samples into a lab.
But “the way data comes back from the lab is super messy,” said Cultra co-founder Jack Washburn. And more often than not it lacks important context. This leaves farmers without important information they need about how their crops will ultimately grow.
“Our fertilizer practices in the US and across the world just aren’t that efficient,” he added, but they are dealing with a true “data bottleneck” that Washburn and fellow University of Florida graduates want to fix.
How Cultra Works
At its core, Cultra works as a “second brain” for agronomists (the scientists behind land and soil management and crop production). The platform’s software helps farmers and agronomists sift through and interpret soil, tissue, biological, and plant-sap data with more ease.
Giving the agricultural community more insight into biological activity, soil chemistry, and environmental data can create massive downstream business impacts, improving farmer’s profitability and overall soil health.
“We connect the dots between the soil and plant nutrients,” Washburn told Hypepotamus. “I think many people have heard about how our food is less nutrient dense and tasty than it was when their grandparents grew food in their garden. The nutrients make it tasty and are key for our health too (zinc, iron, calcium, etc.) We measure those nutrients in the plant. People eat what plants eat!”
Meet The Cultra Teams
Cultra’s co-founders Ethan Poliner (who comes from a finance background), CEO Jack Washburn (who has a horticulture background), and Cooper Martin (who has a software background) all met at the University of Florida as backpacking guides.
Washburn told Hypepotamus he fell in love with soil science while working at the student-run farm on campus. After college he moved to Asheville, North Carolina to grow what he described as “grow super fancy vegetables” for chefs. It was through that job that he started diving deep into nutrient management, which ultimately served as the building blocks for Cultra.
The three co-founders, all outdoor enthusiasts, initially fell in love with Chattanooga, Tennessee for its rock climbing and outdoor culture. What they did not necessarily expect to find was a strong business and tech community building across “Gig City.” The same summer they moved to Chattanooga, the team landed funding from Brickyard and moved into the VC’s “insulator,” a space that has attracted dozens of early-stage companies from across the country and around the world to Chattanooga.
The Cultra team said it has been great to work inside Brickyard alongside other CEOs and startup teams trying to reach the same $1 million ARR goal.
“It’s a very helpful community and people are always looking to pick each other up,” the team added.
The Cultra team set out, first and foremost, to build a tool that “agronomists enjoy using.” As they grow, they are positioning the platform to generate AI recommendations, which can be helpful in improving our food supply.
After officially launching earlier this year, the team landed its first customer in April. It is now eyeing onboarding soil labs that could directly benefit from using Cultra’s platform as new customers.