Ag Accelerators: Revving Up Innovation

Growing up on a farm in Caro, Mich., AGCO customer Jesse Vollmar noticed that tech was transforming other industries, but life on the farm remained labor-intensive and low-tech.

Although Jesse’s parents—who with the help of their Challenger tractors grow organic row crops like black beans and blue corn for retail giants like Chipotle—had broadband Internet and smartphones, records on their 1,200-acre farm were still kept with what he calls “cumbersome spreadsheets. There was a widening gap between what was possible and what was being applied on the farm,” Vollmar explains.

Vollmar is seen here with a Challenger tractor similar to one used on his family’s Michigan farm.

The farm kid saw an opportunity and turned into a tech entrepreneur. His goal: Create a solution to make crop management easier for farmers like his parents. The result: In 2012, Vollmar launched FarmLogs to help, he says, “farmers digitally manage their farms and to leverage data from their fields to improve their operations.”

The company, according to Vollmar, has developed new technology, including web and mobile field monitoring software that notifies farmers when yield threats are detected. FarmLogs also automatically records field activities and provides instant access to field-specific rainfall data, soil maps, yield maps and growth stage estimation.

While inspiration for the startup was rooted in his farm experience, Vollmar knew he needed funding, advice and connections for FarmLogs to grow into a thriving startup. Along with business partner Brad Koch, Vollmar applied to Y Combinator, a prestigious startup accelerator in Mountain View, Calif., to help launch FarmLogs.

For four months, the pair lived and worked in California, devoted 24/7 to developing the software and preparing to roll it out to farmers and investors. As part of the program, FarmLogs received $20,000 in startup capital and access to mentors who offered advice on all aspects of business development. It was the first ag tech startup accepted into the accelerator.

Since graduating from Y Combinator, FarmLogs has, according to Vollmar, raised $15 million in capital and captured about one-third of the market among row crop farmers with 100-plus acres in production. “We started [FarmLogs] before ag tech was a trend,” Vollmar notes. “No one could have even conceived of this five years ago, and now we’re growing at a pace that’s mind-blowing.”

For more, see http://www.myfarmlife.com/features/ag-accelerators-revving-up-innovation/.