By Lynda Kiernan
Cultivian Sandbox has led a $3 million Seed round for FarmlandFinder, a digital platform for farmland professionals. Also participating in the round were Iowa Farm Bureau’s Rural Vitality Fund, and Next Level Ventures.
FarmlandFinder was founded by its CEO Steven Brockshus, a fifth generation family farmer and former National FFA officer, in Des Moines, Iowa, in 2016. The inspiration behind the launch occurred when Brockshus attended a farmland auction and realized how little information and data was available – giving rise to FarmlandFinder’s mission to make land sales simpler, instant, and driven by digital data.
“Buying or selling a farm is one of the biggest decisions a landowner makes and they have very little access to real-time information to help them make an informed choice,” said Brockshus. “At FarmlandFinder, we are leveraging technology to give them more power when making that decision.”
This platform offers easy-to-use market intelligence and data management tools to farmland investment firms, farmers, brokers, appraisers, and ag lenders, giving them access to the most complete and up-to-date market data on farmland across the U.S. Midwest, along with analytical tools to help make informed decisions and to operate more efficiently.
“Each year $56 billion of farmland exchanges ownership, and most of this is done entirely offline with very little access to data or real-time information,” said Brockshus, referring to the opaque nature of the market.
“We’re increasing transparency in a traditionally opaque industry, which helps to level the playing field and drive efficiency. Through a data-rich platform, we’re able to help buyers, sellers and land professionals make informed decisions in a fraction of the time.”
Similarly
Digital platforms have been adopted to ease many everyday transactions, and when applied to agriculture, these suites of tools are being increasingly used to track crop production, but have not been as quickly applied to land values.
Similarly to FarmlandFinder, in October of this year Bayer’s digital agricultural division, The Climate Corporation, announced a partnership with digital farming platform FieldView, and tillable, a first-of-its-kind digital marketplace, for the purpose of connecting farmers and landowners active in the $32 billion U.S. farmland rental market.
Through this project, farmers can access farmland for lease, or land to expand their operations. They can also share data about their operations to establish a reputation, and landowners can be made aware of the level of stewardship being carried out on their property, assuring them that their farmland remains a protected and value-driven investment.
Capital Plans
With the capital secured through this round, FarmlandFinder plans to expand its reach, and to help more investment firms, ag lenders, and landowners leverage real-time data in what has traditionally been a data-poor space.
“With its extensive database of farmland real estate and user-friendly software tools, FarmlandFinder is pioneering the digitization and transparency of the farmland real estate market, and we’re excited to be their partner on this journey,” said Amanda Donohue-Hansen, vice president, Cultivian Sandbox Ventures.
– 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.