Document: FarmLink raises additional $24.6M for ag tech
January 19, 2016 | Bobby Burch
Ag tech startups in Kansas City are plowing a promising 2016.
Kansas City-based FarmLink recently secured nearly $24.6 million in investment capital for its farming technology, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
The company offers a suite of tech services for farmers, including analytics platform TrueHarvest and machinery sharing platform MachineryLink Sharing.
TrueHarvest is a yield benchmark tool that helps farmers validate the impact of environmental variables to optimize production of crops. Through the MachineryLink platform, farmers can pay to use farm equipment when needed and also earn money for renting their equipment when it’s not in use. FarmLink says that lessees will have on-demand access to an inventory of equipment at varying costs, offering them enhanced flexibility, cash flow and revenue.
FarmLink has raised about $67.8 million in capital to date with OpenAir Equity Partners as its primary investor. Founded in 2010, the company has 80 employees and was co-founded by Ron LeMay, David Govert and David Forsee.
FarmLink’s most recent raise comes on the heels of another local ag tech success story. Farmobile announced in December that it raised $5.5 million in a Series A round from a large Amsterdam-based venture capital firm. Founded in 2013, Farmobile invented a device — or Passive Upload Connection (PUC) — that plugs into a tractor’s diagnostic port to collect a variety of farming data, such as info on planting, spraying, fertilization, harvest, fleet management and more.
2016 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Earworms to the Oscars: They’ve redefined jingle writing, now composing music for motion (pictures)
Notes of passion are composed throughout every piece of Sam Billen’s entrepreneurial melody. But it’s the most recent crescendo in his career that has him thanking the Academy. “It sounds cheesy, but it’s actually pretty cool,” said Billen, composer and founding partner of Primary Color Music, detailing the experience of guests who step foot inside…
Innovators can’t do it alone; C3KC conference calls for cross-sector attack on wealth gap, KC’s biggest pain points
Editor’s note: Startland News is a media sponsor for the Junior League of Kansas City’s C3KC conference. Click here for tickets to the event, which features a keynote address by best-selling author Adam Grant. Challenges abound in Kansas City, Kimberlee Ried acknowledged, but opportunities for innovation to push change are even more plentiful. An in-person conference…
Roll over, Wordle: Tabletop golf, cocktail bar tee’d up as KC’s next big game experience with Power and Light opening
Sinkers Lounge is reinventing mini golf in the same way Top Golf reinvented the driving range, said Matt Baysinger. “With all the ideas we have in our heads about what mini golf is, I think Sinkers Lounge will far surpass that. Tabletop golf is this combination of shuffleboard, mini golf and pool that doesn’t quite…
KC filmmaker’s docu-series tackles mental health stigmas with assist from former Chiefs
The brand of freedom sold to viewers of one of the nation’s most-watched cable news networks doesn’t reflect the kind Abraham Sisay has come to know, he declared, looking back on his journey from rising Gambian soccer star to Kansas City filmmaker and how it revealed the true definition of the word. “Fox News was…