January 13, 2020

By Lynda Kiernan

Smart farming, soil sensing, and ag analytics company CropX announced its acquisition of CropMetrics, a Nebraska-based provider of cloud-based, precision irrigation tools, that will join CropX as a valuable provider of on-farm agronomy and irrigation management expertise. 

Founded in 2015 and with offices in both Tel Aviv and San Francisco, CropX integrates the full range of farm data insight channels – satellite, weather, crop modeling, topographical data, scalable soil sensing technology, and cloud-based agricultural analytics, with top irrigation systems to give farmers unprecedented insights into their operation, both above, and below ground.

Backed by some of the world’s top strategic partners including Finistere Ventures, Innovation Endeavors, Greensoil Investment, Germin8 Ventures, Sumitomo Corporation Europe Limited, Bosche, Armada Investment, Tal Capital, and OurCrowd, CropX’s easy-to-install system provides soil sensing technology, and a decision and support platform driven by in-house agronomic, data science, and software teams. By taking soil data and integrating it with crop models, satellite imagery, and weather forecasts, the CropX platform helps farmers increase profitability through savings in water, fertilizer, energy, and labor inputs.

“We intend to lead the market for on-farm irrigation and nutrient management tools in the years ahead and the acquisition of CropMetrics completes a critical step towards that goal,” said Tomer Tzach.

“By strengthening our partner network, growing our U.S. sales footprint and expanding our product offering, the acquisition will help us continue to provide affordable, scalable solutions for farmers dealing with mounting profitability challenges, resource limitations and sustainability demands.”

The addition of CropMetrics will add more than half a million acres under management and more than a decade of in-depth U.S. farm data to CropX’s farm management platform. It also will bring a massive distribution network, best practice service model, user-friendly decision support platform, and a patented Variable Rate Irrigation (VRI) platform for pivot systems.

“Since its founding, CropMetrics has become a trusted irrigation advisor for farmers looking to use soil health and moisture data to deliver higher yields and boost profits by improving water, nutrient and energy efficiency. Farmers and our network of CropMetrics partners will benefit from the addition of CropX’s real-time, in-soil analytics and IoT solutions,” said Lee Addams, CEO, CropMetrics.

“We are looking forward to working with the CropX executive team to evolve the platform with the addition of our solutions so more farmers can realize the massive, untapped profitability lever in managing water.”

This acquisition comes less than six months after CropX announced it had raised $10 million in funding from new investors Sumitomo, Armada Capital, and Tal Capital, who joined existing investors, Finistere Ventures, Germin8 Ventures, GreenSoil Investments, Innovation Endeavors, and OurCrowd in the round. 

Other past investors in the company include  ICL, Lab IX (the Flex technology accelerator), and Robert Bosch Venture Capital GmbH (RBVC).

The company had previously raised a $9 million Series A in 2015 led by Finistere Ventures and including  Innovation Endeavors, GreenSoil Investments, and early CropX backer, OurCrowd. The following year, this round was extended to $10 million to accommodate further investment interest from RBVC) and the Flex technology accelerator, Lab IX.

Concurrent with its $10 million raise in August 2019, the company also announced its official welcome of John Vikupitz, former CEO of the U.S. unit of Israeli drip-irrigation company Netafim, to its team as president.

After 10 years as president and CEO of Netafim, USA, (the largest subsidiary of the global leader of precision irrigation) Vikupitz brings a wealth of industry experience. During his tenure with Netafim, he managed a team of 300 employees, significantly grew the business, and developed a pioneering recycled plastic solution for the industry. He also held a range of sales and marketing leadership roles, including director of marketing.

As president of CropX, Vikupitz is tasked with leading the company’s global expansion, with a focus on accelerating market adoption for the platform, which is the first of its kind to integrate in-soil data insights at scale.

“Adding CropMetrics’s solutions, extensive dealer network and experienced support team furthers CropX’s mission to become the global leader for in-soil IoT solutions for today’s producers,” said John Vikupitz, president, CropX. “Combining the power of CropX and CropMetrics will help us deliver the most advanced in-soil data analytics, decision-support tools and data-driven irrigation prescriptions to growers worldwide.”

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