Hectare nets $20m Series A to advance sustainable ag supply chains

• Hectare, a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform offering crop and livestock farmers insights on trading, inventory and logistics, has secured $20 million in Series A funding.
• The UK-based company will use the funding to boost product development and expand into new international markets.
• The startup currently serves 130,000 UK-based ag businesses.

Why it matters:

Hectare provides a level of “visibility that is painfully lacking in the supply chain,” according to Hectare co-founder and CEO Jamie McInnes.

“Sustainability in agriculture has always been complex, with invisible inefficiencies stacking up quickly to cloud visibility in the food supply chain,” he says. 

The last few years have seen countless supply chain disruptions and food shortages, all of which threaten food security. Case in point: Hectare’s 130,000-strong customer base is in the UK, which is currently experiencing a tomato shortage.

At the same time, there is also pressure to make the agrifood value chain less damaging to the environment.

Hectare offers a suite of software products combined with data that are key in helping businesses improve the trading of livestock and crops, making the system more efficient economically and from a resource standpoint, as well as more sustainable. For instance, the company claims to have reduced the carbon footprint of the beef and sheep supply chain by 2.5 million livestock miles.

Available software products right now include an inventory system that can track sales and yield adjustments in real time, a digital marketplace for crops and livestock and a logistics tool for transporting those things.

“We initially saw a clear path for technology to reduce farming transaction costs by up to 90%,” says McInnes. “Those opportunities then spread wider into sustainability benefits including animal welfare, traceability, food sustainability and security. So, we built a range of products dedicated to supporting farmers and agricultural businesses to make sustainable changes through affordable technology.”

He also says investors are excited about Hectare’s tech, hence the startup being able to raise a sizable series A in the midst of a downturn.

“I think that everyone sees the challenge the world has; agriculture has to produce more with less, whilst reducing environmental impact in an uncertain world where costs are rising. And our investors see that our technologies are helping to tackle this,” says McInnes. 

He notes that Hectare’s business is close to being a 50:50 split between crops and livestock.

“Feed, which is where the two commodities meet, continues to be an interesting space for us too, and we’re also exploring biomass for the potential from a sustainability point of view.”