Hannover, Germany: Soil Scout has been awarded first place in the Agriculture category at the IoT Innovation World Cup.

The finals of the 13th Innovation World Cup took place on the Industrial Start-up Stage at Hannover Messe, the world’s leading fair in industrial tech transformation.

Soil Scout’s CEO Jalmari Talola joined 14 other ‘Top Techpreneurs’ who pitched their solutions live in front of an expert panel which included senior representatives from STMicroelectronics, Siemens, Würth Elektronik and EBV Elektronik.

Worldwide start-ups, scale-ups and innovative SMEs submitted their solutions that shake the future of the Industry 4.0, Energy & Safety, City and Agriculture sectors. There were more than 400 submissions from 65 countries. Only 3% of those made it to the finals.

The categories being judged were Industrial IoT, Energy and Safety, City and Agriculture.

The expert panel judged the winners based on the level of innovation, go-to-market approach, commercial potential and sustainability.

In the Agriculture category, Soil Scout was up against Felco (Switzerland) – a solution for precision viticulture and Naust Robotics (Denmark) – upgrading agriculture with autonomous drones.

Talola said: “We are delighted to have received this recognised award at Hannover Messe. IoT Innovation World Cup is widely known in their field of activity with different industrial IoT solutions that we’ve been following carefully for years.

“This recognition truly means a lot to Soil Scout and we hope it will bring us increased visibility as we introduce this unique solution further across Europe.

“Selection to the finals was already a major accomplishment for us and winning the Agriculture category among the most promising start-up companies in Europe exceeded all our expectations.”

Alexander Gerfer, CTO of Würth Elektronik, added: “As always, a great Innovation World Cup Pitch and Award Ceremony that brings together the most ground-breaking IoT techpreneurs, not only in the field of Industrial but also Energy & Safety, Smart City and Agriculture.

“They show numerous innovative ideas and, beyond that, they are capable of turning these ideas into valuable products with high commercial potential and market entry. The Innovation World Cup finals at Hannover Messe is no doubt a great opportunity for corporates and IoT start-ups to meet and network, initiate collaborations and form strategic partnership.”

Soil Scout is an Associate Business Member of the Asian Golf Industry Federation.