Small UK farms spend £640 per day on consultants to navigate environmental grants, and Regeno is building an AI platform to replace that cost. This matters because 54% of farm income now depends on grants like the Sustainable Farming Incentive and Countryside Stewardship, yet small farms are priced out of accessing them. As the old Basic Payment Scheme shrinks, only larger farms can afford the professional support needed to apply and comply. Poor documentation of environmental practices can also put existing funding at risk. If the platform works, a farm could secure grants for £400 instead of £3,200, and cut weekly compliance paperwork from three hours to 15 minutes. Each consultant could triple their caseload, from 20 to 60 farms annually. Over time, this could help small farms stay viable, support rural economic growth, and accelerate the UK's transition to sustainable farming.
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Regeno is a UK-based agriculture fintech SME led by Founder and CEO, Sven Poppelmann. Small UK farms struggle to access environmental grants like Sustainable Farming Incentive and Countryside Stewardship due to high consultancy fees (typically £640/day). These grants are vital for 54% of farms' income, especially as the agricultural sector faces a 76% reduction in de-linked Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) payments. Small farm income decreases as environmental grants supplant BPS schemes, restricting funding access primarily to larger farms. Even after grants are secured, farmers face complex compliance requirements that can be difficult to meet without professional support, and poor documentation of environmental practices can put their funding at risk. Long term, this issue diminishes environmental biodiversity and threatens farm viability, national food security and the achievement of critical sustainability targets. Regeno is developing an AI-powered digital platform that affordably identifies grant opportunities and requirements and automatically generates compliance evidence during routine farm activities. The platform would particularly benefit small and medium-sized farms (100-400 acres), which are disproportionately impacted by lack of grant access. Regeno's grant and compliance solution could help small farms secure grants at 13% of traditional costs (decreased from £3.2K to £400), reduce documentation time by 87% (decreased from three hours to 15 minutes per week) and triple consultant capacity (increased from 20 to 60 farms annually). With 10K projected UK users within 5 years, the platform could allow each farm to access an additional £30K per year in environmental grants, for a total income increase of £300M. This would support rural economic growth while accelerating the transition to sustainable farming practices, aligning with the UK's net zero goals.
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