July 26, 2022

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

Agtech company Arable believes that the key solution to being able to sustainably feed the world while mitigating agriculture’s impact on the planet lies in digitizing the analog realities of food production. 

To advance this work, return investor Galvanize Climate Solutions, the investment vehicle launched by billionaire Tom Steyer and partner Katie Hall, has led a $40 million Series C for the company, with new participation from Qualcomm Ventures, and including existing Arable investors Prelude Ventures, S2G Ventures, Ajax Strategies, Grupo Jacto, Middleland Capital, M2O, and iSelect.

As the single most influential factor affecting the planet’s resources, agriculture is currently responsible for one-quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions and 70 percent of all freshwater use. The need for new technologies able to improve the financial and ecological impacts of farming has never been greater, as we need to produce 50 percent more food on the same land area by 2050.

“It’s a global imperative that we find new solutions to reduce emissions, increase agricultural resilience, and create a more sustainable food supply,” said Saloni Multani, partner, Galvanize Climate Solution, who will be joining the Arable Board of Directors as part of this investment agreement.

“Arable is at the cutting-edge of farm innovation with technologies that combine the next frontier of connected sensors and machine learning. We are excited to lead this investment round because the company’s technology aligns with our mission to scale vital and urgent climate solutions.”

Farming has never been easy. But climate change is multiplying the challenges for growers by reducing access to water, increasing weather volatility, creating new crop development patterns, and increasing pressures from pests and weeds.

These factors, together with global issues such as the need for more transparent and agile food supply chains, rising input costs, and greater openness about how food is grown, have only intensified the need for digital transformation.

“From talking to farmers and agricultural producers worldwide, it really feels like we are at a tipping point,” said Jim Ethington, CEO, Arable.

Arable’s integrated hardware, agronomic modeling, and suite of software provides farmers, agronomists, researchers, processors, and food companies with granular data, lending understanding of the full crop system at the plant, field, and regional level to reduce risk, improve productivity, and optimize sustainability. Arable’s streamlined approach lets agricultural professionals quickly and easily access reliable data on weather, soil, plant health, and other critical environmental conditions.

“There is an urgent need to improve the productivity and sustainability of farming while at the same time making these systems more resilient to a changing climate and landscape,” said Ethington, “Arable is focused on building the tools for the next generation of agriculture that can unlock productivity through data and digital tools while helping secure farmers’ livelihoods and a stable food supply. We are thrilled to have the teams at Galvanize and Qualcomm Ventures join us on this journey.”

To optimize water use, Arable combines accurate views of the weather, soil moisture, and irrigation amounts with sensors that detect the growth and stress of the crop to generate a complete view in one integrated solution.

Arable also helps farmers be more precise and effective in protecting their crops from pests and diseases, and has been shown to reduce pesticide usages by 15 percent.

To ensure data accuracy, Arable has created a novel calibration and validation network of 30 global research institutions on more than 50 sites across 15 distinct climate zones who partner to produce industry-leading models that leverage machine learning to continue to improve over time.

“The output of a model is only ever going to be as good as the data you feed in, and in a space like carbon where money and reputations will be on the line, we believe Arable can help to achieve a level of reliability and trust that can really help farmers and the planet,” said Multani.

Consumers have also become much more involved and mindful of the foods they buy – how they are sourced, transported, etc. Over the past five years, 85 percent of people have shifted their behaviors and intentions toward being more sustainable options, according to a study released last year by Simon-Kucher & Partners, noted Arable.

And as companies look for ways to align with this shift, greater attention is being paid to actualizing sustainability initiatives, measuring carbon emissions, and engaging with carbon markets, which have the potential to reach $180 billion by 2030, according to Arable. 

“Arable’s comprehensive data capture and analytics platform is helping businesses embrace climate-smart agriculture,” said Carlos Kokron, vice president, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and managing director, Qualcomm Ventures Americas. “We look forward to supporting and working with Arable as they continue to unlock productivity and sustainability in agriculture.”

~ 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 Unconventional Ag. She can be reached at lkiernan-stone@globalaginvesting.com.

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