FarmLab acquires Ziltek to expand soil-scanning tech beyond agriculture

AUSTRALIA – FarmLab, an Australian company known for its digital soil-measurement tools, has acquired fellow Australian firm Ziltek, the maker of the portable RemScan soil scanner.

The deal, whose financial terms remain undisclosed, marks FarmLab’s first major step into hardware after years of focusing mainly on software and satellite tools.

FarmLab cofounder and CEO Sam Duncan said the acquisition addresses a critical need in the soil testing space. “By bringing RemScan into FarmLab, we’re filling a critical gap in our offering and dramatically reducing the cost of environmental testing, without compromising accuracy or usability,” Duncan told AgFunderNews.

Until now, FarmLab’s customers, including farmers and regenerative agriculture projects in Australia and the United States, relied on remote monitoring and expensive in-field sampling to meet carbon-credit rules such as Verra’s VM0042 and Australia’s Soil Carbon method.

With RemScan, users can now perform 20-second scans to measure soil carbon, pH, cation exchange capacity, and other key soil indicators. These scans can replace multiple laboratory tests.

According to Duncan, the integration could cut the cost of soil carbon measurement by up to half while making it possible to collect samples more frequently. “Most soil carbon projects currently rely on sparse sampling every few years,” he explained.

“With RemScan, we can build a time series of measurements and pair these with our AI spatial mapping tools to give producers and project developers better insights into soil carbon flux and the impact of management practices.”

Beyond agriculture

While FarmLab’s main base is agriculture, Ziltek’s RemScan has already proven its value in other sectors. Oil and gas companies use it for land remediation projects, and scientific teams in Antarctica employ the scanner to monitor their environmental footprint in one of the world’s most extreme environments.

These cross-sector uses highlight the technology’s broader potential and suggest that FarmLab’s new hardware arm may expand its reach beyond farming.

The acquisition comes as agtech continues to attract fresh investment and interest globally. Analysts say more companies are blending hardware with digital platforms to lower testing costs and improve accuracy in environmental monitoring.

FarmLab’s move places it among the few firms offering both advanced software and field-ready tools, a combination that could strengthen its position in a crowded market.

For Duncan, the long-term goal is clear. “Producers need better ways to measure and report soil health. By combining our mapping platform with RemScan, we can give them those tools at a fraction of the cost,” he said.

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