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
MoCannaHub lights up information prohibition; launches cannabis resource-finding app
Rolled in entrepreneurial opportunity, tech companies shouldn’t be afraid to take a hit of the growing marketplace that is cannabis, said Andrew Ellis, explaining the methodology behind MoCannaHub — the app that connects curious consumers with experts and information of various strains. “Some of the platforms out there are banning cannabis-related content,” explained Ellis, president…
InnovateHER KC founder leaving KCSF as womxn’s community-building startup scales
It’s time to set InnovateHER KC on the path to long-term growth, said Lauren Conaway, announcing her plans to leave the Kansas City Startup Foundation in early July to lead the womxn-focused startup full-time. “InnovateHER KC’s No. 1 priority right now is building out our community with intention,” said Conaway, founder of InnovateHER KC and…
Photos: Sprint Accelerator leaders salute former managing director at demo day
Gratitude powered down the sixth cohort of the Sprint and Dairy Farmers of America-backed Corporate Accelerator Thursday. “I do have one more person that I need to acknowledge and that person is Doug Dresslear,” Tina Peterson, manager of the Sprint Accelerator, told a packed crowd at the National World War 1 museum’s J.C. Nichols Auditorium. …
LaunchKC, Nueterra Capital announce health accelerator with $50K, plus resources for each startup in cohort
Adding its third vertical in less than a year, LaunchKC will expand its grant opportunities deployment with the new LaunchKC Health Accelerator aimed at improving patient outcomes, the program announced Thursday. “LaunchKC continues to see momentum, headed into its fifth year, having invested over $2 million in cash grants to attract or retain 38 tech…