May 9, 2017

Monsanto subsidiary The Climate Corporation announced it has agreed to acquire Denver, Colorado-based agtech software company HydroBio for an undisclosed amount.

The acquisition will act to strengthen The Climate Corporation’s digital platform and the application of digital technologies to agricultural production.

HydroBio uses a combination of satellite imagery, soil data, and hyper-local weather data to provide insights to farmers regarding irrigation and the efficient use of water through the company’s data-driven irrigation management platform. The company’s analytics capabilities provide farmers with custom irrigation prescriptions and crop health monitoring throughout the growing season with the goal of gaining optimum yields – something that The Climate Corporation views as highly complementary to its Climate FieldView platform.

“HydroBio has unique irrigation-focused data analytics capabilities, and as global water use for crop production increases, efficient irrigation is becoming even more important to the future of sustainable agriculture,” said Mike Stern, chief executive officer for The Climate Corporation. “HydroBio has built a successful business, and their tools will complement our Climate FieldView™ digital agriculture platform offerings in the future.”

Launched in 2015, The Climate Corporation’s Climate FieldView platform is used on more than 100 million acres across the U.S., Canada, and Brazil, with more than 100,000 farmers using the platform’s digital tools in the U.S. alone. Supported by the most extensive research network and data science engine in the agriculture space, Climate FieldView provides farmers with customized insights that enable growers to make informed decisions that aim to translate to maximum yields, improved efficiency, and mitigated risk.

Eye on Europe and Beyond

In November of 2016 The Climate Corporation announced its agreement to acquire VitalFields – a deal facilitated by Monsanto Growth Ventures, the venture unit of Monsanto Co., which was an existing investor in the company.

Founded in Tallinn, Estonia, in 2011, VitalFields was born from the Startup Wise Guys accelerator program. The company provides a user-friendly cloud-based platform and mobile apps that analyze and manage field activity, including tracking and reporting all crop inputs that can help European farmers ensure compliance with EU environmental and production standards.

With this established presence in Europe, and with the added heft of HydroBio, The Climate Corporation plans to expand its Climate FieldView into the European market, followed by expansion into Australia, Argentina, and South Africa within coming few years.

“At Climate, our vision is to deliver one centralized digital agriculture platform to provide farmers with the tools they need to optimize their operations,” said Mike Stern, chief executive officer for The Climate Corporation upon the acquisition of VitalFields.  “VitalFields has built a successful business spanning multiple European countries, and we see how their digital tools will complement our Climate FieldView™ platform offerings in the future.”

This vision for the future is also shared by the team at HydroBio.

“We at HydroBio are very excited to join The Climate Corporation to bring our scalable irrigation management offering to more farmers in the future,” said Barrett Mooney, co-founder and chief executive officer for HydroBio. “We’re looking forward to collaborating with the great team at Climate to enhance the Climate FieldView platform and introduce new, digital tools that transform how technology is used on the farm.”

-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.