An innovation born from research and validated in the field

At the origin of Scanorhize is a researcher: Christophe Jourdan, a soil ecology specialist at the UMR Eco&Sols unit in Montpellier. Throughout his career, he studied roots, digging pits across the world to observe them. These experiments were costly, difficult to analyze, and therefore led to unsatisfying interpretations.

Faced with these constraints, Christophe Jourdan came up with the idea of developing a buried sensor capable of capturing images automatically and continuously, offering a window into soil life and enabling huge advances in soil science. Since 2017, more than 200 prototypes have been developed and tested on every continent, in a wide variety of soils and crops. This sensor reveals previously unexplored phenomena and opens the door to a new era of soil knowledge.

The founders

William Arditi

CEO

William is an entrepreneur whose goal has always been to bring impactful innovations to society. Former CEO of a health startup aiming for long-term impact after several clinical phases, he decided to focus on a project with shorter-term impact after meeting Christophe Jourdan, launching Humeos to address the urgent need to promote sustainable agriculture. He handles industrialization as well as financing and the commercial side.

CentraleSupélec engineer, first entrepreneurial experience as CEO of a deeptech startup in the medical devices sector, recruited and managed a team of 6 R&D engineers, secured €700k in non-dilutive funding to complete the first preclinical phase.

Louis Marot

CTO

While talking with his grandfather, a forest manager, Louis realized how few tools operators had to make the right decisions. As an engineer, his goal has since been to create digital tools that provide decision support and real added value to farmers. He develops Humeos' technologies to closely match customer needs.

Mines Saint-Étienne engineer, Louis launched a successful first intrapreneurial project as CTO. He developed software for optimizing and supporting decisions on train maintenance schedules, delivering over €3 million in savings across SNCF maintenance centers. Following this successful experience, during which he recruited and managed a development team of 17 engineers, he gained extensive experience in software development and field-oriented decision support tools.

We want to become the world's reference tool for the non-destructive observation and continuous analysis of soil life. We enable new advances in soil science, serving research, agro-industrial players, and the agroecological transition.

Scientific committee

Christophe Jourdan

Research Director at CIRAD, Scientific Director at Humeos

Christophe has over 30 years of experience studying root systems. He is the scientific director and inventor of the Scanorhize technology owned by Humeos.

Mickael Hedde

Research Director at INRAe

Mickael has over 20 years of experience studying soil organisms. He is a pioneer in fauna–root–soil interactions, which he was the first to observe with Scanorhize.

Olivier Zekri

R&D Director at Pépinières Mercier

Olivier is R&D Director at the world's largest wine nursery, which supplies 17 million plants each year. He brings his scientific perspective on viticultural challenges.

Strategic committee

Alexis Comar

CEO of Hiphen

Alexis founded Hiphen, a company specializing in aerial phenotyping. He follows our progress closely and advises us on market-access strategy, drawing on his agritech experience.

Baptiste Chazeaud

Vine and wine project management, Champagnes Vranken

Baptiste is an agronomist engineer at the 3rd largest champagne house. He supports the team on industry expectations, bringing the perspective of a major group focused on agricultural production.

Dominique Barry-Etienne

CEO of Mycea

Thanks to her expertise in biosolutions, Dominique supports the team in ensuring our solution fits the needs of companies developing next-generation inputs or seeds.

Alain Arditi

Partner at ToHero

A serial entrepreneur, Alain founded and led the technical direction of the web agency Smile for over 25 years, which today employs nearly 2,000 people. As an expert in web development and IoT, he advises the team on technical choices.

Partners

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