Female-Founded Finches Raises €2M for AI Crop-Risk Alerts

Finches, a female-founded startup based near Munich, has raised €2 million in pre-seed funding to help food and other raw-material buyers identify crop risks before they turn into supply shortages.

The round was co-led by High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) and Vanagon Ventures. Bayern Kapital joined as a new investor, while existing backers including UnternehmerTUM Funding for Innovators and several industry and technology angels also participated.

Founded in 2025, Finches combines procurement data with field-level agricultural intelligence to give companies earlier warnings about potential disruptions to their supply chains.

From a Pecan Farm to Supply Chain Risk

Finches CEO and co-founder Catharina van Delden's interest in the problem began on her family's farm in Uruguay, where she looked after around 500 pecan trees.

According to van Delden, crop losses can sometimes be detected months before they become visible to buyers, particularly during dry years. Yet procurement teams often do not receive those signals early enough to adjust their sourcing plans.

That gap became the foundation for Finches.

The company wants to move agricultural risk information from the field to the procurement desk before a shortage reaches a food manufacturer.

Combining Field Data With Procurement Intelligence

Finches combines a company's own procurement information with external agricultural and market data.

Customer data can include supplier profiles, acreage, contracts, recipes, and sourcing requirements.

The platform then combines this with weather reports, satellite imagery, local news, scientific research, and observations collected by agronomists.

The resulting system generates alerts about potential crop risks, identifies affected regions and supply chains, and recommends actions that procurement teams can consider.

The company says each signal can be checked against customer recipes and requirements, helping buyers understand which products could be affected by a particular crop problem.

Agronomists can also record field visits through Finches' mobile application, including when working without an internet connection.

The company's technology is designed to connect highly local observations with wider factors such as climate models, geopolitical developments, market data, and internal company information.

Beyond Food and Beverage

Finches Intelligence launched in September 2026.

The company works with customers across food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics, sectors where access to agricultural raw materials can directly affect production.

Its early customers include an organic baby food producer and a North American Fortune 500 food company.

Finches says its platform is designed to give procurement teams more time to respond before a crop problem develops into an actual supply disruption.

That could mean changing suppliers, adjusting sourcing volumes, modifying purchasing decisions, or preparing for potential price movements.

A Growing Supply Chain Risk Market

Finches is entering a supply chain risk market that already includes several well-funded companies.

Vienna-based Prewave raised €63 million in Series B funding in 2024 to help companies identify and manage supply chain risks using AI.

Everstream Analytics raised $50 million in Series B funding in 2023, while Interos has raised approximately $192 million across multiple funding rounds.

Finches is taking a narrower approach.

Rather than monitoring supply chains broadly, it focuses heavily on agricultural commodities and the fields where those crops are grown.

That creates a more specialised data challenge.

Weather and satellite information are increasingly accessible, but Finches believes its access to observations from agronomists and procurement information from buyers can provide additional context.

The company says this combination helps translate large volumes of agricultural and market information into decisions that procurement teams can actually use.

Female-Led Founding Team

Finches was founded in 2025 by Catharina van Delden and CTO Dr. Stefanie Glenn.

Alexandra Vázquez Bea joined as a co-founder in January 2026 and serves as CFO and COO.

The company is based in Wörthsee near Munich and operates with a remote-first team.

Van Delden previously identified the problem through her family's agricultural operation, while Glenn brings expertise in combining data and technology to address supply chain and agricultural risks.

Vázquez Bea leads the company's financial and operational functions as it moves from early product development toward commercial expansion.

Investors Back the Approach

HTGF and Vanagon Ventures co-led the new funding round.

Bayern Kapital joined as a new investor, while UnternehmerTUM Funding for Innovators and several industry and technology angels also participated.

HTGF investment manager Anna Stetter said the team stood out because of its understanding of agricultural supply chain challenges and its ability to develop a technology solution quickly.

Vanagon Ventures general partner Susanne Fromm highlighted the growing difficulty food companies face in predicting supply availability.

The funding will be used primarily to accelerate product development and expand Finches' sales operations.

Can Early Warnings Become a Competitive Advantage?

Climate volatility, crop disease, extreme weather, geopolitical disruptions, and changing commodity prices are making agricultural procurement harder to predict.

Finches is betting that earlier information can give companies a meaningful advantage.

Its challenge now is proving that its alerts remain useful not only during major disruptions but also during normal seasons.

The company is also entering a market where competitors have significantly larger funding pools.

With €2 million in pre-seed capital, Finches will need to turn its specialised field-level data into a product that procurement teams rely on before supply problems become visible.

If it succeeds, the company's technology could help food manufacturers make sourcing decisions weeks or even months before a shortage reaches the factory.