Midwestern BioAg announced it has raised $21.3 million in its latest funding round led by S2G Ventures, and including Bison Capital Partners, Tau Investment Management, and Bay Capital Partners.
Mission-driven investments in the company also were secured from The McKnight Foundation and the Franciscan Sisters of Mary.
Founded in 1983 in Wisconsin, Midwestern BioAg employs the tag line on its website, “Better farming through better soil”. To achieve this, the company distributes fertilizers that build soil health while increasing yields and the nutritional quality of both human food and forage. The company’s line of products and its services aim to enhance soil’s organic matter, improve nutrient use efficiency, improve crop strength, and to increase the long-term productivity of farmland.
The company has facilities in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, and Iowa and a sales network covering 29 U.S. states and three Canadian provinces according to its website.
“We see a company successfully weathering a very challenging time in American agriculture,” said Ping Chu, Partner at Bison Capital. “The choices it is making are positioning the company for significant growth, even in advance and independent of a recovery in the farm economy. Midwestern BioAg’s expertise, honed through its long-term, consistent focus on soil health, offers unique value to its customers and will serve the company very well.”
The company plans to use the raised capital to fund the expansion of its manufacturing capacity, to forge relationships and partnerships with large scale food producers and processors geared toward reducing the environmental effects of their food production systems.
“This [investment] presents opportunities for both financial and environmental returns,” said Elizabeth McGeveran, Director of Impact Investing at The McKnight Foundation. “The company’s expertise in nutrient efficiency helps farmers increase yields and the nutritional content of food – that hits the financial goal. It also means fewer fertilizers escape into water supplies or the atmosphere – that hits the environmental goals of a cleaner Mississippi River and fewer greenhouse gases.”
Funding for Fertilizers
This week have been an eventful investment period for alternative fertilizer companies. Only yesterday Florida-based Anuvia Plant Nutrients announced it has raised $23 million through a follow-on round of funding led by TPG Alternative & Renewable Technologies (TPG ART) – a standalone growth and late stage venture vehicle of private investment firm, TPG, and including AIS JV – a joint venture formed between Agro-Iron Inc. and Shrieve Chemical Co. for the purpose of investing in Anuvia, Florida-based private equity firm Osceola Capital Management, food and agtech focused growth capital investor Pontifax AgTech, the Florida Opportunity Fund, and family-owned agricultural and land management company Evans Properties.
Anuvia develops and manufactures highly efficient, multi-nutrient, slow-release fertilizer products with organic materials as a base using a patented system that employs a natural binding mechanism to create homogenous products that can increase crop yields and improve soil health without the use of polymers or coatings.
Earlier this year, S2G Ventures also led a $10 million round for agricultural bio-chemical developer, Terramera. Other investors participating in the round include ACA Investments, Bold Capital Partners, Renewal Funds, and Maumee Ventures. Then, in August of this year, Biological insecticide company, Vestaron announced the completion of an oversubscribed $18 million Series D.
The biofertilizer market is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.08 percent reaching an estimated market value of $2.3 billion by 2020, while the agricultural biological testing market is expected to grow at a rate of 10.4 percent, reaching a value of $1.1 billion by 2021, according to Markets and Markets.