August 18, 2021

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

Following its acquisitions of Nebraska-based CropMetrics and New Zealand-based ReGen last year, CropX has announced its acquisition of Netherland-based crop optimization platform Dacom Farm Intelligence. 

“This is our third acquisition since the beginning of 2020 as we continue to execute on our vision of providing the most comprehensive farm management platform for growers around the world,” said Tomer Tzach, CEO, CropX.

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 irrigation systems to give farmers unprecedented insights into their operation, both above, and below ground.

Through proprietary soil sensor technology and cloud-based, irrigation system-integrated analytics, CropX’s affordable and easy-to-install system helps farmers sustainably increase crop yields and improve crop quality while substantially reducing water, energy, and fertilizer usage.

Founded in Groningen, Netherlands, in 1987, CropX noted that Dacom is a near flawless fit into its farm management suite, bringing proven technology, a wide partner network, a top-of-its-class service model, and intuitive decision support platform. It also adds another 2.7 million acres under management and more than two decades of in-depth data from farms across Europe.

Dacom began by collecting relevant data on temperature, air humidity, and indications for crop forecasting, adding capabilities in soil moisture data and other services in 2005. Over its years in business, the company amassed more than 3,000 long-term client relationships in more than 32 countries, mainly in Benelux.

“Dacom was the missing puzzle piece for our farm management platform,”said Tzach, “adding an established foothold in Europe, two decades of European crop data to our global machine learning engines, as well as a critical component – crop protection and recording – to our product mix. We expect to exponentially expedite our global growth as we integrate our teams and technology.”

CropX also noted that the acquisition of Dacom opens a fast track to EU expansion. Before onboarding Dacom, the bulk of CropX’s business was centered in the U.S., followed by Australia and New Zealand. With this deal, CropX will establish its EU office in Dacom’s current headquarters, and will gain 3,000 new customers in new geographies, 20,000 new farms in more than 40 countries, 30 EU employees, and significant synergies, particularly in the dairy industry. The deal also will expand CropX’s reach into rain-fed regions.

“I am very excited to join the rapidly expanding CropX organization,” said Janneke Hadders, CEO, Dacom. “Our farmers will benefit from the integrated solutions, data-analysis insights and a customer base from around the globe.”

Hadders continued, “The acquisition strongly supports our shared internationalization strategy. Our crop protection capabilities will now leverage CropX data and will help our team solve critical challenges for farming communities across the Netherlands, Middle East and Africa, Europe, North America, and Australia and New Zealand.”

This acquisition follows soon after the exciting announcement in March of this year by CropX of its strategic partnership with NASA Harvest – NASA’s Food Security and Agriculture Program housed within the NASA Applied Sciences Program – to collaborate on global agricultural monitoring, and to provide NASA with unprecedented insights into soil health.

First introduced through their involvement in Farm2050, an ecosystem of leaders in the agrifood industry led by Finistere Ventures and Innovation Endeavors, this partnership between CropX and NASA Harvest bridges the public, private, and academic sectors and reflects the determination of NASA Harvest to create partnerships that unlock innovation in agriculture. 

“We were impressed by the accuracy and reliability with which the CropX soil monitoring platform was able to both pinpoint various soil health and environmental challenges, as well as determine opportunities for water, energy and nutrient conservation,”  Dr. Inbal Becker-Reshef, program director of NASA Harvest, said at the time.

Further enhancing CropX’s business, the acquisition of Dacom importantly strengthens CropX’s sustainable agriculture initiatives through the addition of another layer of regulatory recording, fertility, benchmarking, traceability, and carbon credit features, noted the company in a recent statement.

“The combined power of CropX and Dacom solutions will help us deliver a complete suite of data-driven farm management prescriptions to growers worldwide,” said John Vikupitz, president, CropX. “We are committed to delivering both the most advanced solutions for all critical farm insights, as well as the simplest automated platform to minimize the time and effort needed from growers. We want growers to be able to work smarter, not harder – their days are already hard enough.”

– Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, as well as HighQuest Group’s Oilseed & Grain News. She can be reached at lkiernan-stone@globalaginvesting.com.