The new partnership aims to leverage Source.ag’s solutions at Bayer’s, De Ruiter Experience Center, for trial registration and seed development support

AMSTERDAM, January 16, 2024 — Source.ag, the provider of AI solutions for vegetable growers, today announced its partnership with Bayer, a global leader in life sciences with a strong focus on healthcare and nutrition. The new partnership is based on a shared mission of empowering growers to ensure sufficient fruit and vegetable access to people worldwide.

Source.ag is at the forefront of AI-powered horticulture, redefining how decisions in greenhouses are made. Using cutting-edge AI models, Source.ag helps commercial greenhouse growers optimize resources and maximize yields by predicting plant growth under various conditions. With Source.ag's solutions, growers can create an exact virtual replica of their operation to simulate thousands of potential strategies in thousands of potential seasons with AI. This moves risks traditionally associated with greenhouse growing to the virtual world, enabling growers to determine the best course of action

As an innovative vegetable seed company and a global leader in healthcare, nutrition, and horticulture, Bayer is driven to deliver health for all and hunger for none. The partnership will support internal trials at Bayer's De Ruiter Experience Center with the Source Plant App and Source Track to enable high-quality data analysis.

The De Ruiter Experience Center is an ultramodern demo glasshouse near Rotterdam, the Netherlands. New and existing tomato and cucumber varieties are grown at the centre using the latest technology in both lit and year-round environments. The centre helps Bayer showcase testing and showcasing exciting new products and sustainable techniques.

"In modern horticulture the use of data, hard facts, is crucial. We as Bayer vegetable seeds were looking for a partner to collect and track data from our varieties, with the best possible data visualization. After thorough screening Bayer decided to move forward with Source.ag, which is top in class. We are really happy with this collaboration!" said John van der Knaap, Operational lead at De Ruiter Experience Center, Bayer.

"With our mutual vision of ensuring food security through equipping growers for success, we are thrilled to join forces with Bayer. This initiative aligns with both Source.ag's and Bayer's commitment to continuously innovate to address some of the most pressing issues, including access to healthy diets for our society while respecting planetary boundaries," said Rien Kamman, CEO and Co-Founder at Source.ag.

Source.ag's advanced technology is helping growers worldwide scale faster and operate more efficiently, boosting vegetable yields and creating more sustainable practices. Today, commercial greenhouses in 18 countries benefit from Source.ag's solutions globally. These growers collectively produce vegetables for more than 60 million people worldwide—and that number continues to grow.

About Source.ag

Source.ag is accelerating access to fresh fruit and vegetables by empowering the world's growers with AI. Founded in 2020 by Rien Kamman (CEO) and Ernst van Bruggen (CPO), Source.ag has brought together a team of experienced engineers and plant scientists and has partnered with the world's leading growers to build the sector's most advanced AI. Its AI solutions can simulate plant behavior for defining and implementing optimal cultivation strategies, taking into account millions of data points on climate, biology, and resources. By enabling more growers to operate more facilities more efficiently through pioneering tech, Source.ag is making covered greenhouse agriculture accessible, profitable, and globally scalable. Together, we're on a mission to feed the world, in a climate-resilient and resource-efficient way.

About Bayer

Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the life science fields of health care and nutrition. In line with its mission, "Health for all, Hunger for none," the company's products and services are designed to help people and the planet thrive by supporting efforts to master the major challenges presented by a growing and aging global population. Bayer is committed to driving sustainable development and generating a positive impact with its businesses. At the same time, the Group aims to increase its earning power and create value through innovation and growth. The Bayer brand stands for trust, reliability and quality throughout the world. In fiscal 2023, the Group employed around 100,000 people and had sales of 47.6 billion euros. R&D expenses before special items amounted to 5.8 billion euros.

For more information, go to www.bayer.com.