Indigo Agriculture

Last updated
Indigo Agriculture
Company type Private
Industry Agriculture
Founded2013
Headquarters Boston, MA
Key people
Ron Hovsepian
Geoffrey von Maltzahn
Website indigoag.com

Indigo Agriculture is a Boston, Massachusetts-based agricultural technology company that works with plant microbes, aiming to improve yields of cotton, wheat, corn, soybeans, and rice. [1] The company also offers crop storage and other logistics programs for farmers. [2]

Contents

David Perry, who had led the company since 2014, was replaced as CEO by Ron Hovsepian in September 2020. Perry also left the company’s board. [3] [4]

History and funding

In 2013, Indigo was founded as Symbiota by Noubar Afeyan and Geoffrey von Maltzahn through Flagship Pioneering partners David Berry and Ignacio Martinez, [5] led by former CEO David Perry, as a company developing environmentally friendly microbes that could be applied to seeds to produce better yielding crops. [4] [6] In February 2016, the company rebranded as Indigo Agriculture.

The company raised over $300 million in venture capital funding, with help from investors Flagship Pioneering, [7] the Alaska Permanent Fund, Baillie Gifford, the Investment Corporation of Dubai, and Activant Capital. [8] Indigo’s Series D in 2016 was noted to be the largest private equity financing in the agricultural technology sector. [9]

In September 2017, the company raised USD$156 million, giving it a total valuation of USD$1.4 billion and making it a "unicorn", the term given to start-ups worth more than USD$1 billion. [10] In September 2018, Indigo closed its Series E funding, bringing in $250 million. [11] Later in 2018, Indigo acquired satellite startup TellusLabs, which had been using satellite imaging and geospatial intelligence to create a living map of the world’s food supply. [12]

Indigo was named the top company of CNBC’s 2019 Disruptor 50 list. [13] In 2020, Indigo raised $500 million from investors including FedEx and the Alaska Permanent Fund, [4] and had a valuation of $3.5 billion. [14] In 2020, Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel joined Indigo’s board of directors. [15]

In August 2023, reports from the Israeli R&D partnership Unic-Tech indicated that after a recent round of funding, Indigo's valuation was down to just $200 million. This is a 94% drop from the $3.5 billion at which it was valued two years ago. [16]

Products and services

Indigo's seed treatments contain microbes that live within plant tissue, unlike existing microbial seed treatments that contain microbes that live around the roots. [17] The first product, Indigo Cotton, a seed treatment containing bacteria isolated from cotton plants that is intended to improve yields under drought conditions was launched in July 2016. [18] By 2018 the company has also launched similar seed treatments to improve drought resistance in wheat, corn, soybeans, rice, and barley. [19] [20]

In the United States, Indigo connects growers to buyers and assists with the logistics of shipping their crops. [2] In 2017, the first year this model was implemented, Indigo contracted approximately half a million acres in cotton, wheat, corn, soy, and rice. [20] In 2019, Indigo announced a project to create carbon credits by measuring the carbon that farm fields have in their soil, selling those credits to companies who want to reduce their carbon footprint. [4]

Internationally, Indigo has maintained a presence in Brazil, their first product being microbial seed treatment for soybeans, having yield tests that resulted in significant productivity increases of 3% to 8%. Indigo has also worked with EMBRAPA and other large farms around Brazil. [21] In Europe, Indigo has created a Carbon credits program in Germany, working with German company Beiselen. [22]

Indigo has secured carbon commitments from major companies through its carbon credit program, Indigo Carbon. Some of those companies include Boston Consulting Group, Shopify, Barclays, JPMorgan Chase and IBM. [23] Indigo worked with the Climate Action Reserve and Verra to publish protocols, creating guidance for the program. [24]

Partnerships

Working with Corteva, Indigo was able to offer farmers close to $15 an acre for shifting to practices that pollute less, use fewer chemicals, or farm crops that pull carbon from the atmosphere through the Corteva Carbon Initiative. [25]

Food and drink

Indigo has previously partnered with Anheuser-Busch, having sold 2.2 million bushels of rice coming from growers contracted to produce crops that use 10 percent less water and nitrogen than the average, and save at least 10 percent on greenhouse gas emissions compared to state benchmarks. [26] Indigo has also collaborated with Dogfish Head Brewery via Indigo Carbon, creating a traceably sourced beer using sustainable wheat grown using regenerative farming, called Re-Gen-Ale. [27]

Clothing

In February 2021, the VF Corporation partnered with Indigo to source regenerative cotton for use in The North Face products. [28]

Related Research Articles

The Monsanto Company was an American agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation founded in 1901 and headquartered in Creve Coeur, Missouri. Monsanto's best-known product is Roundup, a glyphosate-based herbicide, developed in the 1970s. Later, the company became a major producer of genetically engineered crops. In 2018, the company ranked 199th on the Fortune 500 of the largest United States corporations by revenue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agricultural subsidy</span> Governmental subsidy paid to farmers and agribusinesses

An agricultural subsidy is a government incentive paid to agribusinesses, agricultural organizations and farms to supplement their income, manage the supply of agricultural commodities, and influence the cost and supply of such commodities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Syngenta</span> Global provider of agricultural science and technology

Syngenta is a global agricultural technology company headquartered in Basel, Switzerland. It primarily covers crop protection and seeds for farmers. Syngenta is part of the Syngenta Group, entirely owned by Sinochem, a Chinese state-owned enterprise.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pioneer Hi Bred International</span> American producer of hybrid seeds for agriculture

Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. is a U.S.-based producer of seeds for agriculture. They are a major producer of genetically modified crops with insect and herbicide resistance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agriculture in India</span> Importance of Agriculture/Forestry/Livestock in national economy

The history of agriculture in India dates back to the Neolithic period. India ranks second worldwide in farm outputs. As per the Indian economic survey 2020 -21, agriculture employed more than 50% of the Indian workforce and contributed 20.2% to the country's GDP.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Intensive crop farming</span> Modern form of farming

Intensive crop farming is a modern industrialized form of crop farming. Intensive crop farming's methods include innovation in agricultural machinery, farming methods, genetic engineering technology, techniques for achieving economies of scale in production, the creation of new markets for consumption, patent protection of genetic information, and global trade. These methods are widespread in developed nations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agriculture in Romania</span>

Romania has an agricultural capacity of approximately 14.7 million hectares (57,000 sq mi) 9.38 million are used as arable land. In 2008, an evaluation revealed that 6.8 million hectares are not used. In 2018, Romania was the third biggest agricultural producer of the EU and produced the largest amount of maize.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roundup Ready</span> Trademark for genetically modified crop seeds

Roundup Ready is the Bayer trademark for its patented line of genetically modified crop seeds that are resistant to its glyphosate-based herbicide, Roundup.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GV (company)</span> Venture capital unit of Alphabet Inc.

GV Management Company, L.L.C. is a venture capital investment arm of Alphabet Inc., founded by Bill Maris, that provides seed, venture, and growth stage funding to technology companies. Founded as Google Ventures in 2010, the firm has operated independently of Google, Alphabet's search and advertising division, since 2015. GV invests in startup companies in a variety of fields ranging from the Internet, software, and hardware to life science, healthcare, artificial intelligence, transportation, cyber security and agriculture. It has helped finance more than 300 companies that include Uber, Nest, Slack, and Flatiron Health.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bain Capital Ventures</span> American venture capital division within Bain Capital

Bain Capital Ventures LLC is the venture capital division within Bain Capital, which has approximately $160 billion of assets under management worldwide. The firm's early-stage investments have included Attentive, Bloomreach, Billtrust, Docusign, Flywire, LinkedIn, Justworks, Turbonomic, Rent the Runway, Twilio, Rapid7, and Redis. Bain Capital Ventures manages $10 billion of committed capital, has over 400 active portfolio companies, and has offices in New York City, Palo Alto, and San Francisco.

Twilio Inc. is an American cloud communications company based in San Francisco, California, which provides programmable communication tools for making and receiving phone calls, sending and receiving text messages, and performing other communication functions using its web service APIs.

Flexport Inc. is an American multinational corporation that focuses on supply chain management and logistics, including order management, delivery, trade financing, insurance, freight forwarding, and customs brokerage. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, California, has thousands of employees and annual revenues of more than $3.3 billion.

David Perry was the CEO and Director of Indigo Agriculture, an agricultural technology company headquartered in Boston, United States. He is a serial entrepreneur in the life sciences industry. He has co-founded Anacor Pharmaceuticals, Chemdex, NexPrise, Virogen and FareWell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Granular Inc.</span> American agricultural software company

Granular Inc. is a San Francisco-based agricultural software development company focused on helping farmers be more profitable and efficient. The company's software products provide farmers tools to manage their financial performance and manage agronomic inputs for maximum performance and return. In addition to digital tools for farmers, Granular also owns AgStudio, a precision ag software company used primarily by ag retailers and professional agronomists, as well as AcreValue, a website that uses proprietary algorithms to provide estimated land values.

Corteva, Inc. is a major American agricultural chemical and seed company that was the agricultural unit of DowDuPont prior to being spun off as an independent public company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Farmers Business Network</span> American agriculture company

Farmers Business Network (FBN) is a farmer-to-farmer network and e-commerce platform based out of San Carlos, California. The company was co-founded by Amol Deshpande and Charles Baron, and launched as a startup in 2014. Diego Casanello took over as CEO in 2024. As of 2024, FBN has approximately 80,000 farmers in their network throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Nori Inc. is a technology startup based in Seattle, Washington. The company is building financial infrastructures to allow carbon removal projects to measure and get economic revenues from their activity. By doing so, Nori aims to establish a universal market-driven commodity price on carbon removal. Nori is focused on soil-carbon sequestration and pays farmers who adopt regenerative agriculture practices which may contribute to carbon sequestration.

Bowery Farming is a New York-based vertical farming and digital agriculture company with farms in New Jersey, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. It grows and delivers pesticide-free lettuce, leafy greens, and herbs. The largest vertical farming operation in the United States, it serves major retailers at over 850 locations throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, including Whole Foods and Walmart, and supports local, fresh produce supply for a number of food-delivery companies.

HeavyFinance is a Lithuanian environmental technology investment company that operates a marketplace for the agricultural industry. The company facilitates investments in debt capital for small and medium-sized agricultural enterprises to switch and expand regenerative agriculture practices such as no-till farming, mixed crop rotation, cover cropping, and the application of compost and manure.

References

  1. Lynley, Matthew (18 February 2016). "Indigo Is Mapping Plant Microbiomes To Produce Next Generation Crops". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-03-15.
  2. 1 2 Hopkins, Matt (March 2018). "Indigo Launches On Farm Storage to Facilitate A Direct Farmer to Buyer Grain Marketplace". PrecisionAg.com. Retrieved 2018-03-01.
  3. Rosen, Andy (September 2, 2020) CEO leaves high-flying Boston startup Indigo Ag Boston Globe
  4. 1 2 3 4 Bunge, Jacob (22 August 2021). "How a Billion-Dollar Farm-Tech Startup Stumbled, Then Revamped". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2 September 2021.
  5. O'Brien, Kelly. "Flagship launches Inari Agriculture to create 'personalized seeds'".
  6. "One startup's plan to grow more crops: put the germs back in". The Verge. 19 February 2016. Retrieved 2016-03-15.
  7. "Flagship Pioneers New Name, $285M 'Special Opportunities' Fund | Xconomy". Xconomy. 2016-12-15. Retrieved 2017-03-17.
  8. "This Bug Startup Just Raised $100 Million To Fight Hunger". Fortune. 2016-07-21. Retrieved 2016-08-03.
  9. Brokaw, Alex (2016-07-21). "New probiotic seeds grow crops that require less water to survive". The Verge. Retrieved 2016-08-03.
  10. "Indigo Agriculture is Boston's newest 'unicorn' startup". bostonglobe.com. 2017-09-26. Retrieved 2018-08-06.
  11. Kreznar, Christian. "Indigo Agriculture Closes $250M To Launch Digital Farmer's Market". Forbes .
  12. Bailey, Tom. "Indigo Ag acquires ag-tech firm with satellite imaging, artificial intelligence".
  13. "Indigo Ag 2019 Disruptor 50". CNBC . 15 May 2019.
  14. "CNBC Disruptor 50". CNBC. 25 May 2021. Retrieved 2 September 2021.
  15. Kolodny, Lora. "Indigo Ag expands its ambitions to reward farmers for fighting global warming, adds Moderna CEO to board". CNBC .
  16. https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/syswxgjph [ bare URL ]
  17. "Startup Bets Its Magic Touch on Seeds Can Boost Crop Yields". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved 2016-03-15.
  18. Brewster, Signe (21 July 2016). "A seed grows in Boston". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-08-03.
  19. Shaw, Jonathan (7 February 2018). "Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security". Harvard Magazine. Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  20. 1 2 Steadman, Jim (9 January 2018). "Indigo Offers Premium for Cottom Production". CottonGrower.com. Retrieved 2018-01-09.
  21. "A Look at Indigo Ag's Successful Entry into the Brazilian Market". 9 May 2019.
  22. Abram, Mike (16 June 2021). "6 companies offering carbon-based payments to arable farmers".
  23. Ellis, Susan (October 14, 2021). "Barclays, IBM, JPMorgan Chase, and others make carbon commitment to Indigo Ag".
  24. Otto, Jeannine (September 14, 2021). "Indigo Ag beefs up carbon program with prices, partnerships".
  25. Plume, Mark (26 August 2021). "Corteva, Indigo Ag team up on carbon credit program for U.S. farmers". Reuters.
  26. Akers, Greg. "Indigo Ag partners up with Anheuser-Busch on sustainable rice". www.bizjournals.com.
  27. Osburn, Christopher (17 September 2020). "Dogfish Head Is Launching The First Beer With Traceable Grain Sourcing". UPROXX.
  28. Yeung, Jeff (February 8, 2021). "The North Face Looks Into U.S.-Grown Regenerative Cotton for Fall 2022 Collection". Hypebeast.