French startup UBEES raises €8 million to expand bee-powered regenerative agriculture globally
UBEES, a French startup focusing on applying beekeeping to regenerative agriculture, has raised €8 million in a Series A round to scale up, accelerate international expansion, and structure its teams.
The round was co-led by European funds Starquest and Capagro, with participation from Newtree Impact.
“This funding round marks a turning point. Every day, we demonstrate that pollination can become a measurable, profitable, and scalable agronomic lever. With the support of our investors, we will accelerate the transition toward more productive and resilient agricultural systems while fostering biodiversity,” said Louis Delelis-Fanien, CEO of UBEES.
Founded in 2017, UBEES combines technology, agronomy, and professional beekeeping to improve agricultural yields while protecting biodiversity and empowering rural communities.
Although the company was originally founded in the United States, it made the strategic decision to relocate its headquarters to France to be closer to its clients, investors, and European teams.
UBEES designs pollination programmes based on analysis of pollinators and their environment. This enables the company to assess ecosystem health, optimise agricultural practices, and measure their tangible impact on crops by combining beekeeping, agronomic data, and on-the-ground support.
The company believes that pollinators are the key to unlocking more productive and regenerative farming. UBEES states that over the past decade, the world has lost 46% of its bee population, leading to a massive decline in pollination. “Although nearly 75% of food crops depend on pollination, it remains insufficiently integrated into agronomic strategies and value chain management tools,” said the company.
UBEES claims to address this gap by structuring pollination programmes designed as an operational lever for farmers and brands alike. It uses connected beehives equipped with sensors and analytical tools to monitor pollinator health and the quality of their environment. This enables the company to gather valuable data on productivity, crop quality, biodiversity, and carbon footprint, among others, which are then used to formulate recommendations to optimise agricultural practices.
In addition to its technology offering, UBEES states that it supports its clients across the entire project lifecycle, from design to on-the-ground implementation.
Quentin Simon, Investment Director at Starquest, said, “By combining deep expertise in pollination with an innovative model involving both brands and farmers, Ubees has created a true virtuous circle, generating measurable environmental and economic benefits. Increased agricultural yields and additional income from honey production strengthen farm resilience and support the entire value chain, while accelerating the adoption of regenerative agricultural practices. We are proud to support Ubees as they enter their next phase of growth.”
UBEES plans to use this fresh capital to accelerate its deployment in Latin America and Africa (key regions for coffee, berries, avocados, and cocoa), while consolidating its existing operations in Europe and the United States.
The company also intends to further develop its embedded technologies within its connected beehives to improve pollinator monitoring and data quality, structure its impact division to more precisely measure the agronomic, environmental, and economic effects of its programmes, and lastly to build an international community of trained, equipped, and supported farmers, benefiting from additional income through beekeeping and access to agronomic data.
The company operates in more than fifteen countries across five continents and works with companies in the agri-food, cosmetics, and energy sectors, including Nespresso, Nestlé, and Starbucks.
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