Down to earth venue for soil testing firm

Its new handheld digital tool ends the usual long and laborious task of testing to measure the health of soil. The PES solution is said to give results on site in seconds.

Alex Muxworthy of PES says: “The tool, comprising a small box, is controlled with the PES app on your phone and all you need is a teaspoon of soil. The tool can do the analysis in field while you wait and it takes about five minutes.

“At the moment soil testing is quite a laborious process; you have to take kilograms worth of soil, box it up, package it and send it off to a lab.

“We have come to the EpiCentre because it has excellent lab facilities as well as good business expertise and has been really helpful and friendly. It’s a real struggle to get lab space in Cambridge and as soon as you say that you are operating in Cambridge the price skyrockets.”

PES has its headquarters in Diss and was founded in 2017 by its CEO Andrej Porovic and CTO Jim Bailey. The idea for the tool came about as a result of a discussion the founders had with the National Institute of Agricultural Botany – which is based in Cambridge – about the difficulties farmers experienced getting their hands on soil health data in a timely manner.

The testing tool is being launched this year following funding rounds that raised £2.4 million, including angel funding arranged by Norfolk-based Anglia Capital Group. The group will be holding a whole day event at The EpiCentre in September including a seminar on how to get into angel investing, ‘why should you do it, risks, benefits’, and a pitching event afterwards.

Andrew Bell, Centre Manager at The EpiCentre, says: “We welcome PES Technologies to The EpiCentre and the September event with Anglia Capital perfectly demonstrates the business eco-system we are creating here where companies, either occupying space in the building or not, can be given business support that helps them to grow.”