Agrotools, a Brazilian provider of business intelligence and geospatial technology for the agribusiness sector, is looking to raise at least BRL 300m (USD 57.8m) for two government-supported environmental services platforms, CEO Sergio Rocha said.

The Brazilian government’s EcoInvest program, which aims to attract investments in the ecological transition, has contributed BRL 80m in catalytic capital to two Agrotools projects: a two-sided Payment for Environmental Services (PES) platform, and a national platform of low carbon projects, Rocha and Project and Government Relations Manager Bernardo Pires told this news service in a joint interview with additional written responses.

Agrotools has committed to raising 3.75x of the government’s initial financing, Pires said. Both platforms will be independently audited by one of the big four accounting firms, he added.

The agritech will set up a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to raise the funds, which may be used to expand and maintain the platforms as well as to pay the agricultural producers in exchange for preserving native vegetation in their farms, Rocha and Pires said.

Agrotools wants to bring in strategic partners to the SPV, to contribute not only funds but also to attract other clients to help accelerate the PES platform, Rocha said. The agritech would also welcome investors that could contribute advertisement and sales capabilities, he noted.

The agritech believes that there are funds available for PES in the market, but no reliable, audited platform to which investors could direct them, Rocha said. Agrotools aims to create the largest PES platform in the world, he said.

Agrotools’s PES platform will connect companies and governments with decarbonization commitments to Brazilian agricultural producers with surplus native vegetation in their properties, Rocha and Pires said.

Agrotools will charge a fee from platform users, which will be directed to the SPE and proportionally divided between the SPE’s partners, the executives said.

The agritech has already engaged in productive talks with the embassy of Norway and Brazilian lender Banco da Amazônia, Pires said.

Brazil is the world’s largest environmental power with 546m hectares (ha) of native vegetation, half of which is part of private rural properties, according to a presentation shared by Pires.

Agrotools has identified 30m ha of native vegetation in private rural properties which exceed the minimum amount of native vegetation that properties are required to conserve under the law – i.e. “surplus” native vegetation, Pires said.

It is there, in these 30m ha of native vegetation, that “the chainsaw is turned on,” Pires said. Agrotools’s platform would be able to channel payments towards these areas with natural vegetation that is highly likely to be converted into agricultural land, he said.

Brazilian producers have seen a drastic reduction in their net soybean and livestock farming revenues, due to high costs of machinery and inputs and high credit interest rates, Pires said.

Agrotools is estimating average annual payments to producers of USD 100/ha of preserved land in Brazil, Pires stated. The agritech expects at least 90% of producers to agree to the payments in exchange for conserving vegetation, because the payments would come free from any of the environmental risks that are inherent to any farming activity, he said.

The platform comes at a moment when the soy moratorium has effectively ended, prompted by pressure from state governors and competition authority CADE, Rocha said.

As reported, the soy moratorium is a 2006 agreement between trading companies to not purchase soybeans from deforested Amazon land.

The Brazilian Association of Vegetable Oil Industries (Abiove), which represents major trading companies, exited the soy moratorium agreement in January, following the entry into force of a Mato Grosso state law eliminating tax incentives to signatories of the agreement, Brazilian news agency Agência Brasil reported.

On the one hand, there is continued demand for products devoid of an environmental footprint; on the other hand, the soy moratorium mechanism is no longer in place, Rocha said. The platform provides a solution to this imbalance, he said.

CADE opened an administrative proceeding against the soy moratorium signatories in September 2025, arguing that the soy moratorium amounts to an anticompetitive agreement between competitors that harms soybean producers.

By contrast, parties would individually decide whether to join the PES platform, Pires said.

The agritech does not believe that the SPV would need to be filed with CADE for a merger review procedure.

Agrotools’ contracts currently total BRL 200m in lifetime value (LTV), Rocha noted.