Soil Steam to raise NOK 45M from Canica.

Soil Steam, a Sandefjord, Norway-based agri-tech company, announced that it raised its capital in a NOK 45M ($5.3M) funding round.

The money was provided by local investors from Norway, including Canica which picked a NOK 20M tab. The transaction values ​​the company at NOK 170 million ($20M) pre-money.

Soil Steam, founded by 3 farmers in the 1990-ies (Finn Limseth, Hans Kristian Westrum and Arvid Laksesvela) and led by CEO Oddbjørn Bergem, developed a technology that uses vacuum to force steam into the ground. The purpose is to make the crops bigger and to prevent vegetables from rotting without the use of harmful pesticides. The technology is patented for use in mobile machines, and Soil Steam claims to be the only company in the world that does this.