US-based farming data analytics platform provider Farmer’s Business Network (FBN) closed a $250m series F round yesterday that included GV, a corporate venture capital subsidiary of internet and technology conglomerate Alphabet.
Investment manager BlackRock led the round through unnamed funds and accounts, which included funds managed by Fidelity Investments Canada and its affiliates, and funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price.
Baron Capital Group, Balyasny Asset Management, Mandi Ventures, Lupa Systems, DBL Partners, Temasek, Expanding Capital and Kleiner Perkins filled out the round along with Ron Shaich, founder of bakery chain Panera Bread. It valued FBN at $1.75bn, according to Bloomberg.
FBN has built a farmer-to-farmer networking platform that enables independent growers to pool information on topics including the prices and performances of seeds and herbicides.
The company also runs an e-commerce service selling seeds, crop protection and biologicals, and will use part of the series F funding to expand that part of its offering.
The cash will also go towards the strengthening of FBN’s crop marketing and financial services platform, which offers contracts, risk management and price intelligence, loan comparisons and insights into crop and health insurance policies.
FBN has now received approximately $625m in funding altogether. Venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins led its $175m series E round in January 2019, increasing the company’s valuation to $1bn in the process.
GV and Acre Venture Partners, an investment vehicle for packaged food producer Campbell Soup, took part in a $110m series D round for FBN in November 2017 that was co-led by Temasek and funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price and backed by Kleiner Perkins predecessor Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers (KPCB) and DBL Partners.
The company secured $40m in a series C round in March the same year that was co-led by GV and DBL Partners, with participation from Acre Venture Partners, Bow Capital and KPCB. It followed a $20m round led by Acre Venture Partners in 2016, that also featured GV, DBL Partners and KPCB.
FBN had raised $15m in a GV-led series B round the year that was also backed by DBL Partners and KPCB, the latter two having supplied $8.9m in series A funding for the company in 2014.
