US-based data sharing platform Farmer’s Business Network (FBN) obtained $110m in series D funding yesterday from investors including GV, the early-stage investment arm of diversified conglomerate Alphabet.
Acre Venture Partners, a $125m fund formed by packaged food producer Campbell Soup, also contributed to the round, as did Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers (KPCB) and DBL Partners.
The round was co-led by Singapore state-owned investment firm Temasek and funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates.
Founded in 2014, FBN operates a social network for famers that enables the anonymous input of information on topics such as pricing and seed performance. The platform aggregates the input to provide precision agronomic data on more than 115 million acres.
FBN also operates an e-commerce platform to sell products such as fertilisers, seeds, technology, agricultural chemicals and services. Its marketing platform meanwhile provides contracts, risk management and price intelligence.
The money will go towards a further expansion of FBN’s offering, including a digital crop marketing platform dubbed FBN Direct and farm analytics services. The company also plans to enter international markets, beginning with Canada.
FBN has now raised nearly $200m in funding. GV and DBL co-led a $40m series C round in March 2017 that also included Acre Venture Partners, Bow Capital and KPCB.
GV also led a $15m series B round in 2015 with participation from DBL and KPCB, followed by a $20m round in August 2016 led by Acre Venture Partners, with contributions from GV, DBL and KPCB.