Iowa-based fintech company Growers Edge is not slowing its M&A engine, having recently purchased automated performance testing platform provider FarmTest, as the company seeks other acquisition targets.
Founded in 2017, Growers Edge offers digital financing options and warranties for ag retailers and manufacturers and analytical tools for lenders and financing originators. In April, Growers Edge raised $25 million in the first close of a funding round, which was co-led by Cibus Capital, Lowercarbon Capital, and S2G Investments.
FarmTest offers software that helps ag retailers and manufacturers design, run, and analyze plot and strip trials for commercial farms, Growers Edge shared in a release. FarmTest derisks the trial of agtech solutions, like ag biologicals, speeding up adoption, Ahraz Husain, chief innovation officer at Growers Edge, told AgTechNavigator.
FarmTest Founder and CEO, Nick Cizek, joined Growers Edge as VP of innovation operations, per the acquisition deal.
“FarmTest had an excellent commercial trial platform — all the way from automating the prescription side to analyzing outcomes — all of which allow us to push more analysis and set up experiments for our partners and customers," Husain elaborated.
Growers Edge’s M&A strategy
Over the years, Growers Edge expanded its financial services, which now include crop plans, input financing, and farm mortgages, Husain explained. Simultaneously, the fintech company has been analyzing the market for possible M&A targets, he added.
Last December, Growers Edge acquired agricultural lending company Aquaoso Technologies and rolled functionality from its flagship product Agcor into Growers Edge’s platform. Agcor helped ag lenders determine climate risk through location-based intelligence, as AgTechNavigator previously reported.
More deals like Aquaoso and FarmTest are on the horizon, as Growers Edge has “some really interesting targets” in mind that they are evaluating, Husain noted.
“We have a game plan for the next five years, more or less, and any M&A will be used to either accelerate that or to, in some degree, supplement that. So, I just want to be clear, beyond just going after random companies, they are very well aligned to our core offerings and go-to-market strategies,” Husain said.
Growers Edge is also developing new financial services with a focus on accessibility, including its input financing that is available to small- and medium-sized retailers, Husain noted.
“Digitization helps bring new opportunities to those that are already in the business of advising farmers, and including farmers themselves, to get broader access to much more than they would otherwise have. And that is really [what] our tech that is focused on accessibility — as well as the financial products that we are bringing to farmers — allows us to do,” Husain added.
