Horta

What Horta does

Horta Srl is an Italian agtech company founded in 2008 and headquartered in Piacenza that develops specialized Decision Support System (DSS) platforms for precision and sustainable agriculture. Its core offering consists of crop-specific web-based DSS modules — vite.net (grapes), granoduro.net (durum wheat), pomodoro.net (tomato), patata.net (potato), olivo.net (olive), girasole.net (sunflower), cipolla.net (onion), mais.net (maize), orzo.net (barley), and legumi.net/soia.net (legumes/soy) — that integrate real-time data from one of the world's largest agro-meteorological station networks with proprietary crop growth models, pest forecasting algorithms, and agronomic databases to deliver decision recommendations for fertilization, irrigation, pest management, and harvest timing. The platform stack also includes YouSustain.net, a CCPB-certified (DTS_01) sustainability assessment tool covering LCA, PEF, carbon footprint, and water footprint for 30+ crops, plus the FiDia.net digital bulletin for integrated plant protection and a Carbon Farming MRV platform validated for Mediterranean regions.

Horta operates a subscription-based B2B model with quote-based pricing, distributing through its cloud platform (cloud.horta-srl.it), dedicated mobile applications (Android/iOS/PWA), and channel partnerships with major Italian agri-food processors — Barilla, Mutti, Tampieri, Peroni/Heineken, Unaprol, Andriani, Pastificio Mancini — that promote the DSS to contracted supply-chain farmers. Customers span individual farmers, agronomic technicians, producer cooperatives, agri-food companies, and agricultural input producers (seeds, fertilizers, crop protection), with deep R&D collaboration alongside Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, CREA, CNR, and over 20 EU and national research projects (Horizon Europe, LIFE, PRIMA, EIP-AGRI, Agritech National Center). Following BASF Digital Farming's 2022 acquisition of its DSS technology, Horta's capabilities have been embedded in the xarvio FIELD MANAGER platform, with the fruits-and-vegetables launch in late 2025 covering France, Italy, Spain, and Türkiye and planned expansion to tomatoes and potatoes in 2026.

Name

Horta

Legal name

Horta Srl

Website

https://horta-srl.it

Company type

Private

Founded year

2008

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Horta is an Italian agtech company developing crop-specific Decision Support System (DSS) platforms for precision and sustainable agriculture, serving farmers, agronomic technicians, producer cooperatives, and major agri-food brands including Barilla, Mutti, and Peroni, with technology now embedded in BASF's xarvio platform.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Precision Agriculture Software

NAICS

Farm Management Services (115116), Support Activities for Crop Production (11511)

SIC

Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373), Agricultural Services (700)

akta.pro primary industry

Farm Management & Decision Support Software (FMIS, ERP, Recordkeeping) (AFAGALAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

Pest/Disease/Weed Detection & Forecasting Analytics (AFABAMAI), Irrigation Scheduling & Water Optimization Analytics (AFABAMAG), Farm Operations Planning & SOP Development (AFACAJAB)

Keywords

• Precision agriculture software
• Decision support systems
• Sustainable crop management
• Agronomic DSS platforms
• Agricultural climate services

Headquarters

HQ city

Piacenza

HQ country

Italy

HQ region

Europe

Offices4 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. DSS Subscription Services: Horta provides subscription-based access to its Decision Support Systems for farmers, technicians, and agri-food companies. The platforms are accessible via web and mobile apps, with continuous automatic updates and personalized technical assistance included. Subscription services cover individual crop DSS modules (grapes, cereals, tomatoes, potatoes, olives, etc.) as well as the YouSustain sustainability assessment platform.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Horta develops and operates cloud-based Decision Support Systems (DSS) for sustainable and precision agriculture, with specialized crop modules for grape, durum wheat, tomato, potato, olive, sunflower, maize, barley, onion, and legume/soybean cultivation. The DSS integrate real-time data from one of the world's largest agro-meteorological station networks with crop growth and pest forecasting models to deliver recommendations for fertilization, irrigation, pest management, and harvest timing. Horta also offers the YouSustain sustainability assessment platform (LCA, PEF, Carbon Footprint, Water Footprint), mobile applications, and regenerative agriculture consulting.

Product overview

Horta provides a comprehensive portfolio of Decision Support Systems (DSS) for precision and sustainable agriculture. The core offering consists of crop-specific web-based DSS platforms (vite.net, granoduro.net, patata.net, cipolla.net, girasole.net, pomodoro.net, olivo.net, FiDia.net, and others) that integrate real-time data from agro-meteorological stations to generate decision recommendations for fertilization, irrigation, pest management, and crop lifecycle management. These DSS are accessible via web interfaces (7/7, 24/24 hours) without installation requirements. The product ecosystem includes mobile applications (Barilla granoduro.net APP, Mutti pomodoro.net APP, sprayer calibration APP), the YouSustain sustainability assessment platform, and regenerative agriculture consulting services. Horta's technology is built on continuous research, calibration with experimental farms (Res Uvae, Cà Bosco, La Quercia), and was integrated into BASF's xarvio platform following acquisition in 2022.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• vite.net: Decision Support System for grape/wine cultivation
• olivo.net
• granoduro.net
• pomodoro.net
• patata.net
• cipolla.net
• girasole.net
• YouSustain.net
• FiDia.net
• Res Uvae
• Cà Bosco
• La Quercia

Products and services

• vite.net Professional web-based Decision Support System for wine and table grape cultivation. Provides decision support for phenological monitoring, pest and disease management, irrigation scheduling, fertilization, and sustainable production practices. Targeted at grape growers, agronomic technicians, and producer organizations.
• uva.net

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 15,600 tonnes of sunflower production supported through girasole.net by Tampieri and Coppini in 2019
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers19 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

AI capability4 records

Feature16 records

Partnerships

Twelve partnerships are on record, tiered core and flagship.

• BASF Digital Farming GmbHcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2022BASF acquired Horta's Decision Support System in 2022. Horta's DSS technology has been integrated into BASF Digital Farming's xarvio FIELD MANAGER platform, enabling global expansion of the technology. BASF launched xarvio FIELD MANAGER For Fruits & Veggies in March 2025, starting with grape cultivation in France, Italy, Spain, and Türkiye, with plans to expand to tomatoes and potatoes from 2026.
• BarillacoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHorta developed granoduro.net and a dedicated mobile APP for Barilla's Sustainable Farming (BSF) program. Barilla promotes the DSS to its durum wheat supply chain farmers for sustainable cultivation and traceability. Collaboration includes experimental trials at La Quercia farm.
• MutticoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHorta developed pomodoro.net (APP Mutti pomodoro Snap) for Mutti's processing tomato supply chain, enabling sustainable cultivation and traceability for contracted farmers.
• CNR – Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (AGRITECH Project)flagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerHorta participates in the Agritech National Research Center (CN00000022, funded by MUR M4C2 Investment 1.4, NextGenerationEU) through multiple projects: AgrLiv Network, HealthyLand. This is a major Italian research infrastructure initiative.
• CREA (Council for Agricultural Research and Economics)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborates with CREA in Foggia on experimental trials, particularly for cereals and industrial crops at La Quercia experimental farm.
• Università Cattolica del Sacro CuorecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborated on the design of the Biomassbed system at Res Uvae experimental farm and other R&D projects. Involved in viticulture and enology training programs.
• CON.CER CooperativecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAgricultural cooperative collaborating with Horta on cereal trials at the La Quercia experimental farm, testing DSS calibration and new cultivation techniques.
• Agroalimentare Sud (Malting plant)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMalting plant specializing in brewing malt for major breweries (e.g., Heineken) that collaborates on barley trials at La Quercia farm.
• SAPLO (Malting plant)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMalting plant producing Peroni beer malt, collaborating on barley trials at La Quercia experimental farm.
• Andriani (Mill)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAndriani mill (specializing in gluten-free products) collaborates on wheat trials at La Quercia farm for food innovation research.
• CCPB (Certification body)coreOthersCCPB certified Horta's YouSustain.net sustainability platform in accordance with the DTS_01 technical document standard for sustainability assessment of agri-food supply chains.
• Unaprol (Olive consortium)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerItaly's largest olive oil consortium using Horta's DSS and olivo.net for sustainable olive cultivation across member farms in the supply chain.

Scale indicators10 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Iteris ClearAg: Provider of weather, water, and soil data plus crop modeling APIs feeding agricultural decision-support tools — similar to Horta's agro-meteorological network as an input layer for DSS recommendations.
• xarvio (BASF Digital Farming): BASF's digital farming platform into which Horta's DSS was integrated following the 2022 acquisition; offers crop-specific decision support for fertilization, crop protection, and yield optimization across Europe and globally.
• Climate FieldView (Climate Corp / Bayer): Industry-leading precision agriculture decision-support platform from Bayer/Climate Corp offering field-level data analytics, variable rate recommendations, and crop modeling — the global benchmark Horta competes with in DSS.
• CropX: Israel-based precision agriculture platform combining soil sensors, satellite imagery, and agronomic models for irrigation and crop management decisions — comparable crop-by-crop agronomic recommendation engine approach.
• Granular (Corteva): Corteva's farm management and decision-support software suite for agronomic planning, field records, and financial analysis — directly comparable FMIS/DSS positioning to Horta's modules.
• Conservis: Farm management software platform providing planning, budgeting, and operational analytics for row crop and specialty crop producers — an FMIS competitor for Horta's enterprise and cooperative customers.
• AGRIVI: European-based farm management software with decision-support features for crop production planning, pest and disease monitoring, and weather-driven recommendations — operating in similar EMEA geographies as Horta.
• Tule Technologies: Precision agriculture company specializing in irrigation decision-support and crop water stress monitoring using field-sensor analytics — an overlapping focus area with Horta's irrigation/water-balance modeling.
• Prospera (Valmont Industries): Valmont-owned AI-driven crop monitoring and digital agronomy platform — directly comparable to Horta's image-and-data-driven decision-support system approach for specialty crops.

Broad incumbents

• Trimble Agriculture: Diversified precision agriculture vendor with hardware (GNSS, sprayers) and software (farm management, decision support) — broader portfolio than Horta but overlapping in decision-support and farm data analytics.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Instagraminstagram.com/resuvae
• Xx.com/Horta_srl
• Facebookfacebook.com/Horta.srl

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Horta