Indigo Ag, Inc., a Boston, MA-based food production company, closed a $250M Series E funding round.
Backers included Baillie Gifford, Investment Corporation of Dubai, the Alaska Permanent Fund, and the company’s founder, Flagship Pioneering.
The company, which has raised over $650M in total capital raised to date, intends to use the funds to execute on its product portfolio.
Led by David Perry, President and CEO, Indigo Ag uses algorithms and machine learning to develop microbial products that increase crop yields in the face of environmental, disease, and pest stress.
Indigo works with growers to sustainably produce high quality harvests. The company then connects growers and buyers directly to bring these harvests to market. Utilizing beneficial plant microbes to improve crop health and productivity, Indigo’s portfolio is focused on cotton, wheat, corn, soybeans, and rice.
The company also announced the launch of Indigo Marketplace, a digital platform for buying and selling grain.
Buyers can source grain with a range of characteristics (e.g. protein content, milling quality, variety) and production practices (e.g. organic, rain-fed, non-GM). In turn, growers may be paid a price premium based on the quality and identity of their crop.
In addition, Indigo facilitates grain quality testing, transportation, and payment, all of which is managed through the platform.
The company is licensed as a grain dealer across the 40 states in which it currently operates and expects licenses in the balance in the coming months. It has additional offices in Memphis, TN, Research Triangle Park, NC, Sydney, Australia, Buenos Aires, Argentina, and São Paulo, Brazil.
FinSMEs
18/09/2018