US-based agriculture marketplace operator Indigo Agriculture increased a series F round already backed by courier services provider FedEx to $535m yesterday following the close of its $360m second tranche.
The additional tranche consisted of $260m in preferred equity financing and $100m in convertible equity and came after $175m in convertible equity financing and $25m in debt financing from financial services firms including Pacific Western Bank in January this year.
FedEx, Flagship Pioneering and Alaska Permanent Fund took part in the January first tranche and the latter two commited to the second one, which reached a $300m close at a $3.5bn post-money valuation in June. Investment Corporation of Dubai and Baillie Gifford are also participants.
Indigo operates an online marketplace that directly connects farmers with grain buyers. It also runs a scheme that matches farmers with companies looking to pay for carbon offsetting.
The company’s offering also include microbial crop treatments, an agronomy advisory service and a produce shipping service for farmers. It has however dialled back on those services after making 150 staff redundant in February 2020 and shuttering its operations in Australia.
The series F financing will go to Indigo’s marketplace and carbon capture services as well as its logistics, microbials and agronomy activities. Stéphane Bancel, founding chief executive of biotechnology producer Moderna, has taken a seat on its board of directors.
Indigo has now raised more than $1.2bn in combined equity and debt financing. It was incubated by Flagship Pioneering and emerged from stealth in 2014 as Symbiota, having secured a founding investment from the incubator’s Flagship Ventures.
Baillie Gifford, Alaska Permanent Fund, Investment Corporation of Dubai and Activant Capital are all among the company’s earlier investors.
