Following $50M U.S. Expansion, Brazil’s Solinftec Partners with AGCO on Digital Ag

March 26, 2019

AGCO Corporation, one of the world’s top manufacturers and distributors of agricultural solutions, equipment, and related services, announced a commercial and technological partnership with Brazil’s Solinftec, a digital agtech provider of actionable insights to farmers through the Internet of Things (IoT), satellite, mobile, data processing, and AI data science.

“We are humbled and thrilled by the opportunity to work with AGCO,” said Renato Hersz, Strategy and Corporate Development for Solinftec. “Together we can positively impact food production on a global scale. Through technology we can definitely do more with less from an economic, environmental, and social perspective.”

Now in its eleventh year, Solinftec’s business is comprised of layers of hardware, telecommunications, and software common across different crops. Building upon this layer, Solinftec has developed a range of broad-reaching algorithmic solutions which address challenges specific to each crop and geography. Used by growers in more than 10 countries, including international companies such as Amaggi, COFCO, and Terra Santa, Solinftec’s technology platform processes granular sensor-gathered data from more than 18 million acres and more than 30,000 agricultural machines.

Through the partnership, AGCO’s customers will gain direct access to Solinftec’s portfolio of hardware that will compliment AGCO’s existing products, including Solinftec’s on-board computers, weather stations, and soil sensors, along with its telemetry networks, proprietary algorithms, and insights generated in real-time which can improve both operational and agronomic efficiency.

The newly-formed partnership was formed with the intention of an initial launch in early 2019 in Brazil, for sugarcane, (where Solinftec accounts for 60 percent of the sugarcane market), soybeans, corn, and cotton crops. This will be followed by a U.S. launch in 2020 for corn and soybeans.

Sao Paulo to Lafayette

In November of last year, Solinftec announced it would be investing $50.6 million to fund the expansion of its operations into the U.S. With the establishment of a new U.S. headquarters in Lafayette, Indiana, the company plans to establish operations at the Purdue Research Park in Tippecanoe County, creating up to 334 new jobs by 2022.

“The U.S. Midwest is core to our strategy; we recognize its importance in the global food and its ag ecosystem,” said Hersz in November 2018. “We are humbled and thrilled to launch our U.S. headquarters out of the state of Indiana.”

Once reviewed by the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) Board of Directors, the Indiana expansion will be granted $6 million in conditional tax credits from the state based on the realization of  job creation.

“We thank the state government, Agrinovus, Purdue University and Tom Farms for their vision on supporting this initiative and for its Hoosier hospitality,” said Hersz.

“Indiana is at the center of innovation in agtech, and today’s news is yet another example of the collaborative ecosystem we’ve created here,” said Governor Eric J. Holcomb. “Solinftec choosing to locate its first U.S. operation and its U.S. headquarters in Tippecanoe County will not only create hundreds of high-skilled, high-wage jobs, but it will bolster an industry that is developing new solutions, improving agricultural products consumed around the world, and enabling farmers in Indiana and beyond to grow their operations.”­

Transparency Through Partnership

AGCO’s partnership with Solinftec is a strategic move born of the AGCO Fuse Ecosystem, a strategy of working with other developers throughout the industry in a transparent partnering model that ensures compatibility and allows farmers free choice in their machinery, farm management, and agronomic software.

“We are happy to add such a proven innovator to our global Fuse network and to continue giving farmers choices to improve efficiency for their farm operations,”  said Chris Rhodes, director of Business Development, Global Fuse from AGCO Corporation.

“This resource will be particularly valuable for our South American customers right away, but we also look forward to expanding with them to other parts of the world over the next several years.”

~ Lynda Kiernan 

Lynda Kiernan is Editor with GAI Media and daily contributor to GAI News. If you would like to submit a contribution for consideration, please contact Ms. Kiernan at lkiernan@globalaginvesting.com.

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