British agtech has struggled to translate its strong research base and investment potential into commercial success. While the UK remains a top destination for agritech funding, few early-stage investors have seen significant returns—a trend that has left the sector searching for a breakthrough. Charles Veys, founder of Fotenix, an AI-driven agricultural diagnostics company, points to a critical gap: “There’s a great environment for grant funding to develop technology, but there isn’t support for adoption.”
Fotenix, which specializes in multispectral imaging cameras for early disease and pest detection, is now positioning itself to bridge that divide. This summer, the company secured £2.1 million in funding, marking a shift from its gradual growth since 2016. Veys attributes the timing to a new UK government grants scheme, ADOPT, which subsidizes farmers’ adoption of innovative technologies—a move that could finally help agtech startups scale.
The company’s core offering is decision intelligence for controlled-environment agriculture, primarily serving growers of high-value crops like tomatoes, lettuce, and peppers. Unlike broadacre farming, where intervention costs often outweigh benefits, precision monitoring in greenhouses can deliver rapid returns. Fotenix’s business model combines hardware and software into a performance-based service: farmers pay only if the system delivers results over a 24-month period. “We detect problems before they’re visible,” Veys explains, noting that AI is essential to account for variations in crop appearance due to genetics or environmental factors.
Fotenix’s evolution reflects broader industry challenges. Initially, the company worked with seed breeders like Bayer and BASF, using its cameras to accelerate resistance testing. But it soon pivoted to growers, expanding in Europe and the US. The recent funding round aims to lower the barrier for smaller operations, reducing installation overheads and broadening market reach. “We used to say no to a lot of growers because they weren’t big enough,” Veys admits. “Now, we’re focused on scaling the product-market fit.”
The ADOPT scheme, which covers up to 80% of adoption costs, could be a game-changer. Veys describes it as a “derisking mechanism” for farmers, allowing them to test technologies like Fotenix’s without prohibitive upfront costs. For a sector where early-stage exits have been rare, this support addresses a critical bottleneck: the gap between proving a technology works and achieving widespread adoption.
Data ownership remains a key concern in agtech. Fotenix ensures customers retain control of their data, while the company retains its AI models—a standard increasingly expected by growers wary of vendor lock-in. Meanwhile, AI in agriculture still faces hurdles, from poor rural connectivity to fragmented data. Fotenix spent years optimizing its systems to function in low-bandwidth environments, a challenge Veys says was underestimated by policymakers and telecom providers.
As Fotenix prepares to showcase its technology at the 2025 World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit, its trajectory highlights both the promise and the persistent barriers in UK agtech. The ADOPT scheme may finally provide the adoption lifeline the sector needs—but its success will depend on whether it can turn pilot projects into sustainable, scalable solutions. For now, Veys remains cautious: “There hasn’t yet been a single success story in UK agtech. Not one.” The question is whether this time, the pieces are finally falling into place.