The CALICE startup, specialized in biotechnological innovation applied to agriculture, has secured a new investment of USD 1,000,000 aimed at agricultural digitalization. It was provided by the Astanor fund, based in Belgium, but with operations throughout Europe.
This fresh capital adds to the USD 1,500,000 that the company obtained in early 2025, coming from Draper Cygnus, Xperiment Ventures, Air Capital, Innventure, and GrainCorp Ventures.
International Expansion and Technological Strengthening
Ramiro Olivera, co-founder and CEO of CALICE, highlighted that these funds will allow them to expand their global presence, with a strategic focus on the United States and Europe.
“We are going to accelerate the arrival of our technology to new markets, strengthen our operations, and consolidate alliances with key players in the agricultural sector,” he explained in a conversation with iProUP.
Olivera, who previously founded Kheiron Cloning, a pioneer in equine cloning, emphasized that CALICE’s business model is global, as virtual crop trials have no geographical barriers, allowing them to collaborate with clients from anywhere in the world, regardless of the local economic context.
How CALICE was born and its commitment to agricultural digitalization
Founded in 2022, CALICE has offices in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and San Francisco, USA.
Its team, composed of 15 professionals, is focused on revolutionizing the agricultural industry through virtual field trials, with the aim of optimizing crop development and biological products.
Olivera decided to apply computational modeling to agriculture after learning about the advances of Esteban Hernando, a Molecular Biology Ph.D. from UNSAM, a specialist in plant biotechnology at CONICET.
Together with Andrés Rabinovich, Ph.D. in Physics from UBA and an expert in computational simulations, and Pablo Romero, an engineer with an MBA from the Universidad de San Andrés, they turned their scientific knowledge into a scalable company with an appealing business model for the international market.
NODES: the artificial intelligence revolutionizing agricultural trials
CALICE developed NODES, a virtual field trials platform that combines:
- Computational modeling.
- Advanced simulation.
- Artificial intelligence.
This technology allows:
- Evaluating the performance of new varieties in different environments.
- Optimizing breeding strategies.
- Analyzing disease resistance.
- Predicting the effectiveness of bioinoculants and biofertilizers before their application in real crops.
Impact of digitalization in agriculture
Olivera states that the great advantage of NODES is its ability to drastically reduce the costs and validation times of new agricultural solutions.
According to their estimates:
- Physical field trials can be reduced by up to 80%.
- Development times can be reduced by up to 50%.
Unlike other solutions that depend solely on genomic data or experimental tests, NODES integrates:
- Historical performance data.
- Climatic conditions.
- Soil characteristics.
- Genetics and pedigrees, generating a holistic view of the crop.
CALICE’s Validations and Projections
During 2024, CALICE conducted concept tests with companies in Argentina and multinational companies to validate the efficiency of their technology.
“After these studies, which demonstrated with concrete results the effectiveness of our platform, we plan to close contracts worth USD 800,000 in 2025 through the licensing of NODES,” says Olivera.
The business model is based on subscriptions, allowing agricultural companies to access the platform without restrictions on its application in different crops.
Astanor and the Future of Biotechnology
The investment fund Astanor, led by Eric Archambeau, manages around EUR 1 billion in assets, investing in technological companies that drive the sustainable transformation of agriculture.
CALICE joins this new generation of ventures, positioning itself as a leader in agricultural digitalization, with a proposal that reduces costs, accelerates innovation, and minimizes environmental impact.
