Tag: AgTech

Better pull out those shades. The future of the livestock industry is upon us, and investors are banking on it being a bright one.

Cha-ching: Vytelle, the Kansas City-based precision livestock company is rolling in the dough thanks to a recent Series A funding round worth a cool $13.2M. Their plans with the cash? Speeding up genetic advancement in cattle.

Vytelle officially launched its integrated technology platform last year, and its forward-thinking team is “reshaping genetic progress” via a three-pronged approach:

• A data capture system that records feed intake and weight gain.
• An AI-powered genetic analytics tool that processes genomic, phenotypic, and performance data.
• A souped-up in vitro fertilization technology.

The up-front herd efficiency and sustainability service provided to the producers is what brought ag investment firms including Open Prairie, Wheatsheaf Group, and Fulcrum Global Capital to the table with big checks in hand.

And with one recent study noting that livestock production is the source of around 57% of greenhouse gas emissions stemming from the global food industry (with beef alone contributing 25%), a more sustainable and efficient herd that requires fewer inputs with exceptional output could gain traction fast.

Soundbite: CEO Kerryann Kocher said it best when summing up Vytelle’s core mission: “We want to make meat and milk viable food choices for future generations. We want every producer to have the choices available to them to make a more sustainable cattle herd.”

Intelinair is feelin’ fair after closing on a sweet $20M in Series B funding.

Intel for ag: Former Dow AgroSciences CEO and current board member Tim Hassinger deems the startup a data analytics company focused on agriculture. The company’s AGMRI platform runs drone, satellite, or fixed wing aircraft pictures—at 10 cm resolution—through 52 different patterns to ID an agronomic issue. The farmer then receives an alert, hoping to catch a small issue before it becomes a big problem.

The startup is no small potatoes, either. Nearly 5M revenue-producing acres are currently covered by Intelinair. That’s expected to jump to 8M over the next year as the company sharpens positioning, messaging, and sales processes.

A soundbite: “Not only does Intelinair provide vital agronomical insights to growers, a $15B opportunity, but it also identifies actionable opportunities and provides tools to facilitate the decarbonization of the planet and drive sustainability and efficiency of food supplies, a global imperative,” said Bill Wisialowsi, managing member of Regulator Group, LLC.

Where this goes: Short-term growth plans include hiring a handful of additional leaders by the end of the year. Then, the company sees two scalable pillars to the business: carbon measurement and aggregated data intelligence for non-farmers (read: traders, governments).

The company is cautiously optimistic that they could be the carbon intel behind marketplaces and other opportunities as the industry solidifies.

At least eight companies have launched a carbon credit program in just the past two years. And the carbon solution craze continues.

Most recently? EarthOptics, a U.S. soil mapping startup aiming to reduce farmers’ carbon release, just raised $10.3M in a Series A round. Leaps by Bayer, Bayer’s investment arm, led the charge after EarthOptics went through the company’s startup accelerator program.

EarthOptics does exactly what it sounds like it does: gives farmers the most accurate view of their operations’ soil health, compaction, and carbon content by transforming soil measurement and analysis approaches.

A soundbite: “We think we’re a little bit different because we’re taking a fairly pragmatic approach around measurements,” said Lars Dyrud, CEO at EarthOptics. “We are very interested in soil and think it is the solution to a much more sustainable future for all of us—not just with food, but with carbon as well. The key to unlocking all those future promises is good measurements.”

What’s included in the startup’s scope? Reducing unnecessary tilling, decreasing manual soil sampling, and limiting carbon release.

AgBiome, a crop protection company in North Carolina, has raised $116M in its latest funding round, co-led by Blue Horizon Ventures and Novalis LifeSciences.

Microbe manager: Investors are backing the company that focuses on naturally-derived fungicides. With AgBiome’s microbial collection, combined with microbe sequencing and its strain identification system dubbed “GENESIS,” they’re able to develop natural fungicide products for the market. Science.

The goal of their products is to provide the same level of protection with biological products that synthetic chemicals provide.

Shoot for (or howl at) the moon: Howler®, AgBiome’s first fungicide product, works on soil-borne, foliar diseases and various mildews on strawberries, grapes, leafy vegetables, cucurbits, pome fruit, and stone fruit. Howler works on more than 300 crop-disease combinations. How do you like them apples?

Climate helpers: The company also highlights their technology could help with climate change, citing “50 to 70% fewer greenhouse gases through microbial-based pesticides versus synthetic ones.”

In the pipeline: We’ll see their second product, Theia Fungicide, in 2022 while their third fungicide is with the EPA for registration. AgBiome says they’ll use the funds raised to expand its product portfolio and scale its team. Their plan is to have 11 products on the market by 2025.

Amazon is investing in the Amazon Rainforest. Sounds about right.

The international conglomerate worth more than $300B is teaming up with The Nature Conservancy to create a more sustainable income for farmers in Brazil while finding solutions to climate change. They’ve named the initiative the Agroforestry and Restoration Accelerator to help restore cattle pastures to native forest ground to trap and store carbon.

Desmatamento (“Deforestation” in Portuguese): The Brazilian state of Pará has 9% of the world’s tropical forest, but it’s losing 3,300 acres every day to deforestation—an average of 40% of the state’s deforestation over the last 13 years.

That’s where Amazon and The Nature Conservancy hope to incentivize small farmers and ranchers to plant cacao trees and other native species to reduce deforestation and create a new market for local farmers.

Come on, Jeffrey, you can do it: Amazon will assist with innovative farming methods through high-tech imaging that will monitor carbon sequestration. Amazon’s goal is to remove up to 10M metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions through 2050. That’s equal to one year of emissions from two million cars.

The Nature Conservancy says the project has developed steps to select eligible farmers and train them to produce cocoa. Farmers will have access to credit lines, sales support, and market opportunities.

Accelerate sequestration: Initially, the Accelerator will support 3,000 farmers and restore 20,000 hectares (nearly 50,000 acres) within three years. Possibly a better service than two-day shipping. Possibly.

Thanks to ag digital startup Fieldin, farmers could gain a sixth sense.

Fieldin, founded in 2013, has raised $55M to help specialty crop operations improve efficiencies by giving them access to info they couldn’t have seen with the naked eye.

The U.S. and Israel-based company helps orchards, vineyards, and other specialty crop operations use real-time data (via specialty sensors) and machine learning at every stage of the growing cycle.

Outstandin’: Fieldin’s technology creates a digitized farm by gathering data through sensors installed on tractors, implements, and other machinery. Growers get the data on a dashboard that provides information on comparative performance and opportunities to improve.

For instance, a specialty crop grower can see if they’ve missed a row of spray application, or if the application speed is too high or too low. During harvest, the platform can determine shaking patterns (like for almond trees, not dance moves) and yield data.

Sound Bitin’: “Today’s growers are challenged by many factors like chronic labor shortages, strict regulations, pests, unpredictable weather, water shortages, oil prices, and more,” says Iftach Birger, Fieldin’s co-founder and COO. “Fieldin is driving the strategic utilization of agricultural resources against these constraints, not only optimizing operations and reducing costs, but also making a positive global contribution through better food, higher yields, and environmental impact management.”

Performance-Drivin’: Fieldin’s technology is currently used on five of the 10 largest farms in California. As for those almonds, they are providing support for 20% of the global almond industry. That’s really somethin’.

China’s largest ag platform, Pinduoduo, just raked in its first-ever profit. While they’re ringing the cash register, the company is donating the “cha-ching” for ag development.

Pinduoduo has pledged to donate the $2 billion yuan ($309M) Q2 operating profit and all future earnings up to 10 billion yuan ($1.5B)  to the development of ag as part of their “10 Billion Agriculture Initiative.” The initiative will target critical needs in ag and rural areas.

Soundbite: “Agriculture has long been at the core of Pinduoduo’s corporate mission and [the Initiative allows] us to deepen our support for agricultural modernization and rural vitalization,” said chairman and CEO Lei Chen.

Backstory: Pinduoduo is an online platform that connects farmers and retailers across China. It’s one of the country’s big three shopping sites – along with Alibaba and JD.com.

Zoom out: China’s online retailers have been pressured to find new growth opportunities after Xi Jinping’s government cracked down on monopolistic practices and renewed scrutiny on data security and online content.

Calls for tech companies to give back and share wealth became…well, very loud. Pinduoduo reacted with a focus on community group buying, agriculture, and infrastructure.

Summer is not the time to start a diet. And Semios agrees.

The Vancouver-based precision ag company has spent the summer bellied up to the table in an AgTech consumption spree that would make Joey Chestnut’s head spin.

“We are in building mode,” says Semios CEO Dr. Michael Gilbert. And that’s putting it lightly.

The company has acquired three precision ag firms in the past two months, and they are now positioned to be one of the largest independent AgTech companies in the world.

Loosening the belt: The picnic started in June when Semios bought out Altrac and Centricity— acquisitions that added automation, remote management control, and data-sharing tools to their already impressive smorgasbord of pest management and crop data tools.

But the main course arrived just this week when Semios announced they will be acquiring Australia-based Agworld and the farm management platform the company has been serving up since 2009.

Pacific Northwest growers of more permanent crops—like apples, grapes, pistachios, and almonds—have long been nuts about Semios. But the variety of platforms now amassed by Semios is opening up new opportunities for the AgTech firm: servicing more row crop farmers.

Where this goes: According to Dr. Gilbert, these “combined forces” are certain to result in “increased velocity of our R&D efforts and getting new products to market, benefitting growers who are being tested by mother nature like never before.”