September 14, 2020

By Lynda Kiernan, Global AgInvesting Media

Israeli smart farming, soil-sensor, and cloud-based analytics company CropX has expanded its global reach in Oceania with the acquisition of New Zealand-based precision effluent and irrigation services company Regen. 

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.

Its easy-to-install system helps farmers sustainably achieve greater yields and better quality crops by significantly reducing water, fertilizer, and energy usage, while minimizing costs, runoff, and pollution of waterways.

“As the shakeout in the digital ag arena heats up, the importance of understanding soil health and what is happening beneath the ground is finally coming into the spotlight,” said Tomer Tzach, CEO, CropX. “This acquisition will help us further build out our on-farm irrigation, effluent and nutrient management product lineup as we lead the market in delivering accurate in-soil insights.”

This deal for Regen – a company that delivers exceptional quality, service, and results via more than 200,000 client recommendations per year based on its soil data and decision support platform – brings more than 130,000 acres under management and more than a decade of in-depth New Zealand farm data to the CropX platform.

“Continuing our commitment to provide affordable, scalable solutions to help farmers make the best possible decisions to overcome resource limitations, profitability challenges and sustainability demands, the acquisition of Regen strengthens our global network and expands our growing sales footprint,” said Tzach.

It’s All in the Timing

This is the second acquisition completed by CropX this year, having acquired Nebraska-based CropMetrics, a provider of cloud-based, precision irrigation tools, just before COVID-19 hit the U.S.

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

Also fortuitous, the company closed on $10 million in funding in August 2019 from new investors Sumitomo, Armada Capital, and Tal Capital, who joined existing investors Finistere Ventures, Germin8 Ventures, GreenSoil Investments, Innovation Endeavors, and OurCrowd. 

Gaining this capital gave CropX the enviable position of not having to raise capital amid a global pandemic, and offered the ability to focus on continued growth. 

Kiwi Strong

This deal also strengthened CropX’ position in a market where it has deep roots in the ag community, having been developed as part of the New Zealand Crown Research Institute (CRIs) and initially funded by a group of New Zealand angel investors.

Finistere Ventures, a major investor in the New Zealand ag space, and an early backer of CropX, facilitated the negotiations for the acquisition, and will play a role in helping the company to further grow its local presence.

Arama Kukutai, co-founder and partner with Finistere noted about the New Zealand agtech sector in a piece he authored and was published by GAI News in June 2018,  “The industry has moved beyond the traditional R&D funded by universities and the Crown Research Institutes (unique public-private research entities) that traditionally provided the bulk of commercialized research for the farm sector.”

“There is also a vocal and active angel investor community supporting a growing cohort of agritech entrepreneurs going global with a diverse range of new technologies.”

To reach its goals of rapidly building out its in-country sales and support team, CropX announced the promotion of Eitan Dan, former COO, CropX,  to the newly created position of New Zealand general manager.

“Now part of CropX, the Regen technology solutions, extensive regional sensor network and experience support team will help us deliver the most advanced in-soil data analytics, decision support tools and data-driven irrigation prescriptions to growers as a global in-soil IoT leader,” said Dan.

The addition of Regen also enhances the CropX platform by integrating Regen’s abilities in effluent irrigation – something that can reduce large quantities of manure, redirecting it away from runoff, and can also improve crops.

“Aiming to create world-class, technology-based decision support solutions for the agricultural sector, Regen has helped New Zealand farmers tackle the growing complexities of managing modern farm operations over the past decade,” said Bridgit Hawkins, CEO, Regen.

“Farmers need financial and environmental sustainability. Joining CropX, our farmers will be able to get access to its transformational technology and extensive global data network to instantly assess what is happening in their paddocks so they can make sure their farm operations sustainably manage water, nutrients and leaching.”

Effective immediately, Hawkins, and the Regen team will join CropX, bringing their regional on-farm expertise, advanced agronomy knowledge, and effluent and irrigation management capabilities to bear on CropX’ global strategy. 

– Lynda Kiernan is editor with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, and HighQuest Group’s Oilseed & Grain News. She is also a contributor to the GAI Gazette. She can be reached at lkiernan@globalaginvesting.com.