Interestinghttps://www.wsj.com/articles/farmers-business-networks-first-cio-looks-to-refine-data-insights-11640003401?
FBN says it has 33,500 members across the U.S., Canada and Australia and operates more than 25 warehouses. Its members agree to share data on seed performance, pricing, weather and other facets of the business. In return, they gain access to a repository of industry and product pricing information. The company’s cloud-based data software also tracks spatial data from farm machinery, as well as other metrics provided by farmers to help them score the carbon footprint of crops.
Valued at $3.9 billion, FBN has thus far raised $878 million, including a $300 million Series G round in November led by FMR LLC, parent of Fidelity Investments. FBN plans to hire more than 300 employees in the coming months, Mr. Kokal said.
In the company’s most recent funding round, the venture-capital arm of farm products giant Archer Daniels Midland Co. made an equity investment and entered a partnership that gave ADM access to FBN’s carbon-footprint-tracking technology.