Ag tech firm Farmobile reaps big multi-million dollar investment
December 18, 2015 | Bobby Burch
Agriculture company Farmoblie reaped substantial funding to accelerate development and distribution of its technology to collect data from farm machinery.
The Kansas City-based firm snagged a $5.5 million Series A round of equity investment led by Amsterdam-based Anterra Capital.
Founded in 2013, Farmoblie created a device — or Passive Upload Connection (PUC) — that plugs into a tractor’s diagnostic port to collect a variety of data useful to a farmer. The company, which to this point has been self-funded, created software to provide information for farmers’ decisions on planting, spraying, fertilization, harvest, fleet management and more.
A Farmobile PUC
“Data is one of the most valuable things a farmer harvests today,” Founder Jason Tatge said in a release. “Today’s announcement is a huge win for farmers around the world who want to put their data to work. Farmers ought to own and directly profit from the information they produce. It’s that simple.”
The company’s proprietary tools standardize geo-located agronomic and machine data, Farmobile is “a champion for farmer data rights, ownership and data portability” and focuses on “strengthening existing farmer relationships and building tools to reduce the frictions of data portability.”
Farmoblie’s technology seems to be a perfect fit for Anterra’s focus on financing the growth of firms creating sustainable food and agricultural offerings. The venture capital firm’s mission is in part to support “innovation in the way we produce, move and consume food.”
“We are investing in an experienced team with a superior product that is addressing a large market opportunity,” Anterra Capital partner Dudley Hawes said in a release. “We’ve been looking for technology that can demonstrably make farms more profitable, at scale. Farmobile has both the vision and the grit necessary to spark a revolution in the use of farm data.”
Tatge, a member of the Pipeline organization, has long been an advocate of empowering farmers through data sharing.
“No one should ever know more about a farm than the farmer,” Tatge said in the release. “Farmobile provides a clear alternative to Big Ag’s vertical data silos. We can’t wait to make a difference for thousands of new customers around the world.”
Check in for more on this story.
2015 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Kansas’ angel tax credits score first victory but hurdles remain
A bill extending Kansas’ popular Angel Investor Tax Credits scored its first victory Thursday, but legislators must make quick work of the measure if the program is to survive. The Kansas House Committee on Taxation unanimously approved a measure to continue the program, which offers accredited investors a tax credit of up to $50,000 on…
Sharing economy labors over lawsuits, paradigm shift for cyber security law
Here’s this week’s dish on the sharing economy, the issues with backdoor encryption, and corporate-to-startup collaboration. Check out more in this series here. AustinInno – The gig economy is at a crossroads as lawsuits, innovative benefits expand As the sharing or “gig” economy expands with companies like Uber and Lyft, it’s not just permit…
Kansas City scores $50K to inject innovation into education
Kansas City recently snagged a $50,000 grant that aims to fuel the development of a passionate, 21st-century workforce. The City of Fountains was named one of eight winners of the national LRNG City Challenge. As a result, the KC Social Innovation Center will use the grant to implement new programming this summer. The LRNG platform…
Kansas City creativity sticks out among the weirdest in Austin
At the tech and innovation conference South by Southwest Interactive, it’s as easy for companies to blend in as the flyers littering the streets of Austin. But amid the sea of commercial chaos — where hundreds of companies big and small fiercely fight for the most fleeting of interactions — Kansas City stood towering like the Liberty…