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Agtech Upstart FarmLogs Raises Another $10 Million

This article is more than 9 years old.

Agricultural management software company FarmLogs just added $10 million in venture backing, bringing its total raised so far to $15 million.

The Series B round—which comes less than one year after its Series A event—includes existing investors Drive Capital, Huron River Ventures, and Hyde Park Ventures, and new backers including the president of Y Combinator, Sam Altman.

Co-founder and CEO Jesse Vollmar said his Ann Arbor, Mich., startup will dedicate much of the new money toward hiring new engineers, data scientists and designers. "Having additional capital behind us accelerates our ability to bring the best science and technology to every farm through intuitive software," Vollmar said in a statement.

Vollmar grew up on a family farm and was an IT consultant before he started his company (which used to go by the name AgriSight). FarmLogs develops mobile applications specifically meant to help row farmers track metrics for fields, such as when they must be tilled, fertilized, watered and so on. According to the company, its software is being used to manage more than $12 billion worth of crops in more than 130 countries. The technology is meant for operations with at least 100 acres under management.

"Their growth has been phenomenal since they have participated in YC in 2012, and Jesse has a focused vision combined with relentless execution," said Altman, commenting on his angel investment.

As I mentioned several weeks ago when I reported on Google Chairman Eric Schmidt's new agtech innovation "collective," corporate and venture investments in technology for agricultural organizations and food companies rose 48% year-over-year during the third quarter to reach $269 million.

Field treatment management companies like FarmLogs represented one of the most popular sectors.