Brief: Indigo Ag cuts more jobs; signs new carbon credit buyers

• Indigo Ag is cutting 80 jobs across the US. The layoffs affect 25 roles in Indigo’s Boston headquarters, 29 in Memphis, and 26 remote employees, it told the Boston Business Journal.
• The agritech unicorn said the job cuts – which leave its headcount at around 1,000 personnel – align with new CEO Ron Hovsepian’s strategy “to direct resources to [its] four primary offerings and realize the value they can deliver to the industry.”
• According to AgFunder data, Indigo raised a total of $560 million last year, making it one of the top five highest-funded agrifoodtech startups in 2020.
• Meanwhile, Indigo announced that Maple Leaf Foods and Epiphany Craft Malt have agreed to buy its carbon credits, while Cool Effect will sell Indigo credits via its own platform. Outdoor apparel maker North Face will pay Indigo’s farmers a premium for cotton they grow using regenerative ag practices. 
• In October, Indigo said that Barclays, JPMorgan Chase, Shopify, IBM, and Boston Consulting Group were among the first corporate buyers of its carbon credits.

Why it matters:

Indigo says its “four primary offerings” are its grain marketing and transportation platforms, as well as its carbon credits scheme and biological products business.

David Perry, who had been Indigo’s CEO since 2014, left the company last September. Perry was replaced in the top spot by Ron Hovsepian, a partner at Indigo founding investor Flagship Pioneering who had been serving as the startup’s acting chief operating officer.

Indigo laid off around 150 employees in February last year, ostensibly to refocus resources away from its agronomy and transportation businesses towards its grain and carbon marketplaces.