Taking a page out of Climate Corporation’s playbook, Farmers Edge acquired GranDuke Geomatics of Lethbridge, Alberta. According to an agreement finalized on January 9, the precision agriculture and data management company out of Winnipeg, Manitoba will now control GranDuke. GranDuke will continue to provide advanced GIS and yield data processing services for Farmers Edge and its clients.
Founded in 2012 by Guy Duke and Kevin Grant, and developed with the assistance of the National Research Council, GranDuke provides its clients with custom tailored software solutions and geospatial applications for precision agriculture, environmental monitoring and oil and gas.
“The acquisition of GranDuke is a huge opportunity for our company and our staff,” Grant said. “Farmers Edge is a world-class, fast growing precision agriculture company. We are excited to be a part of their continued growth.”
Farmers Edge, which has operations in North America, South America, Australia, Russia and Eastern Europe, is flush with cash after raising an undisclosed – but presumably significant amount – from Kleiner Perkins. It has said that its goal is to increase the profitability of its growers while maintaining an environmentally sustainable approach to agriculture by utilizing advanced precision tools and data analytics. It offers its turnkey Precision Solutions package for virtually every agribusiness, crop and climate combination imaginable, an attractive asset in the wide spectrum and fast growing Ag business sector.
The Precision Solutions package uses high-res satellite imagery, field centric weather monitoring, variable rate technology, in-field telematics and workers in the field to collect, store and transfer data meant to support informed management decisions and a better understanding of their results.
The GranDuke acquisition is a bit of a no brainer as that company’s fertilizer and yield maps are already provided as a part of the Precision Package product line. The GranDuke component uses cloud-based data processing, automated workflows and specialized software design to increase growers’ efficiency.
“We’re really excited about the acquisition of GranDuke Geomatics because they bring an outstanding software engineering team and valuable Ag technology IP to the table,” said Wade Barnes, president and CEO of Farmers Edge Inc. “We want our growers to have all resources they need to attain the best results from their investment.”
The move by Farmers Edge is reminiscent of Climate Corporations activity after its acquisition by Monsanto, last year. Climate Corporation has since acquired Yield Pop, Solum’s soil analysis business line, and most recently 640 Labs. It remains to be seen if the other big Ag players will make a jump into the acquisitions game or attempt to develop the technology in house, as they have done in the past.
