Grimme off-shoot Schmiede.one is ‘innovation lab’

A digital technologies research and ‘accelerator’ business founded in the shadow of the world’s market leading manufacturer of non-grain crop planting and harvesting machinery has started work on new business models for sales and service, as well as hydroponic crop production and intelligent field robotics.

The start-up business Schmiede.one, set up early last year, is the brainchild of Christoph Grimme, international production manager at the Grimme Group, and Alexander Langer, a Cambridge graduate and former Grimme employee.

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Christoph Grimme (left) and Alexander Langer of the Schmiede.one digital technologies research and ‘accelerator’ business.

Digital technology solutions

Schmiede.one operates as an ‘innovation lab’ at its base in Düsseldorf, Germany, investigating digital technology solutions and future business models that could be used for clients in the agricultural industry beyond the scope of their current activities, such as sales intelligence and equipment trade and appraisal, indoor crop production and artificial intelligence for agriculture.

Machinery portal hektor.one

“Our current focus is on machinery trade: We’ve recently launched a new machinery portal called hektor.one where we collaborate directly with 25 other equipment manufacturers and also involve dealerships to provide clients with custom quotes online,” explains Alexander Langer, chief executive.

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Hydroponic production solutions and management is one area of research at the business.

“Our goal is to provide our partners with a full set of infrastructure to transform their web presence and apps into their best sales consultant, where we currently see mere catalogues and news repositories.” Operations already include the Grimme ‘satellite’ business Ricon, a manufacturer of crop conveying webs, as well as external clients from the agricultural industry.

Schmiede.one operates independently

Schmiede.one operates independently, emphasises Christophe Grimme, a fourth-generation member of the family owners of the Grimme Group, as well as to encourage innovation and fast development of solutions. But the company is already benefiting from technologies such as the online used machinery portal, machine audits app, sales network management and analysis solutions developed by the Schmiede.one team.

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Schmiede.one aims to generate and incubate new projects for the application of digital technologies for information, processes and production in agriculture.

Alexander Langer adds that further projects such as the new machinery portal hektor.one, indoor farming and robotics will not be integrated into Grimme operations but would ideally be spun out into an independent venture. Nonetheless, the robotics work is focused on solutions for potato and sugar beet production, which he says are crops rarely catered for by off-the-shelf products.

“This is where our research project comes into play,” he comments. “Our bot is already capable of object classification and autonomous navigation; stay tuned for the first impressions and field feedback!”