By turning satellite data into actionable insights on soil health, German startup CinSOIL is helping agrifood companies cut carbon emissions at farm level.
Antonella Succurro’s journey to agrifood innovation began in an unexpected place: the tunnels of CERN particle physics laboratory. She loved the lab’s bold vision but longed to apply her data-science skills to problems with faster, real-world impact. Her passion for the environment had always run alongside her research, and a chance encounter with a professor studying theoretical biology sparked a new fascination with microbial communities and soil health.
Through the EIT Food Innovator Fellowship she met Giorgi Shuradze and Tavseef Shah. The trio went on to launch CinSOIL – a software solution to inset carbon emissions at farm level and empower farmers to restore soil health. Ultimately, their ambition is to accelerate Europe’s shift toward a more sustainable, nature-positive food system.
CinSOIL has developed a practical, science-based way to measure how much carbon is stored in soils – resulting in a faster, more reliable way to verify. Their software combines satellite images, remote sensing and AI-powered modelling to reduce the need for physical soil sampling. This gives farmers and companies a far more accurate, up-to-date picture of soil organic carbon, allowing them to adopt regenerative practices and track real improvements in soil health and biodiversity.
Working closely with farmers, including through a programme funded by the European Space Agency, the team is building additional sustainability indicators that reflect on-farm realities. CinSOIL received a €30 000 Technology Validation Award in graduating from the EIT Food Accelerator Network, and in April 2025 secured a pre-seed funding round. These projects and milestones are strengthening CinSOIL’s proof-of-concept, as they move to the next stage – working with a range of food system actors in decarbonising their supply chains.
Turning A Burden Into An Opportunity For Farmers
At the heart of the CinSOIL mission is to support the health of soils in Europe and beyond. Soils store four times more carbon than vegetation and, after the oceans, represent the largest carbon pool on Earth. With 46% of global habitable land used for agriculture, boosting soil carbon sequestration is critical to tackling climate change.
CinSOIL’s approach ensures farmers benefit directly. The team is determined that farmers should not bear the burden of transitioning their practices, especially because of all the pressures they face. Instead, the CinSOIL software will be purchased by companies and other food system actors seeking to meet their sustainability targets.
In fact, farmers stand to gain, as a growing number of food companies are willing to pay a premium for regeneratively produced crops. It’s a model supported by growing demand, with 60% of EU consumers willing to pay more for sustainable food.
Showing That Positive Impact Beyond Academia Is Possible
Antonella’s relationship with EIT Food began in 2021, when she joined the EIT Food Innovator Fellowship during her postdoctoral research. The programme gave her something she hadn’t found in academia: practical tools to turn scientific ideas into real-world solutions. Through workshops and regular mentoring, she learned design thinking and business model development, skills that shifted her mindset from solving abstract scientific questions to creating innovations that address someone’s tangible needs.
As EIT Food alumni, the CinSOIL team later joined the Explore programme at TU Munich in 2022, benefitting from EIT Food’s highly connected ecosystem. In 2023, with support from EIT Food partners, they secured an EXIST startup grant with TU Munich, enabling them to resign from their posts and formally establish CinSOIL in 2024.
The Innovator Fellowship gave me a real understanding that you could have a positive impact beyond academia. In academia, you can feel very righteous - like you can only do good for the world if you're doing pure research. One of the big differences in a startup is that whatever you build has to make sense from a business point of view – not only the excitement of solving a problem.
Dr. Antonella Succurro, Co-Founder and CTO of CinSOIL
Placing Soil Health At The Heart Of Europe’s Climate Actions
CinSOIL’s platform has the potential to support a diverse range of actors across the food system: farmers, agri-input companies, agrifood corporates with supply chains, carbon project developers, and even governments. As Europe develops a carbon certification framework with a registry for carbon units, reliable measurement and verification of soil carbon will become increasingly critical.
CinSOIL is already collaborating with individual farms and regions, but the solution is designed to scale, adapting to the unique priorities and conditions of different farmers through a landscape-based approach.
Progress towards regenerating Europe’s soils will be boosted by the EU’s first Soil Monitoring and Resilience Law, coming into force in December 2025. With 60–70% of European soils currently degraded – costing the EU over €50 billion annually – startups like CinSOIL are poised to help reverse this trend. Their products can help restore soils, sequester carbon, and reward farmers for regenerative practices, shaping a sustainable, resilient European food system.
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