Indigo Agriculture

Indigo Agriculture is a Boston, Massachusetts-based agricultural technology company that works with plant microbes, aiming to improve yields of cotton, wheat, corn, soybeans, and rice.[1] The company also offers crop storage and other logistics programs for farmers.[2]

Indigo Agriculture
TypePrivate
IndustryAgriculture
Founded2013
HeadquartersBoston, MA
Key people
Ron Hovsepian
Geoffrey von Maltzahn
Websitehttp://indigoag.com/

David Perry, who had led the company since 2014, was replaced as CEO by Ron Hovsepian in September 2020. Perry also left the company’s board.[3][4]

History and funding

In 2013, Indigo was founded as Symbiota by Noubar Afeyan and Geoffrey von Maltzahn, led by CEO David Perry, as a company developing environmentally friendly microbes that could be applied to seeds to produce better yielding crops.[4][5] In February 2016, the company rebranded as Indigo Agriculture. The company raised over $300 million in venture capital funding, with help from investors Flagship Pioneering,[6] the Alaska Permanent Fund, Baillie Gifford, the Investment Corporation of Dubai, and Activant Capital.[7] Indigo’s Series D in 2016 was noted to be the largest private equity financing in the agricultural technology sector.[8] In September 2017, the company raised USD$156 million, giving it a total valuation of USD$1.4 billion and making it a "unicorn", the term given to start-ups worth more than USD$1 billion.[9] In September 2018, Indigo closed it’s Series E funding, bringing in $250 million.[10] In 2020, Indigo raised $500 million from investors including FedEx and the Alaska Permanent Fund,[4] and had a valuation of $3.5 billion.[11] In 2020, Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel joined Indigo’s board of directors.[12]

Products and services

Indigo's seed treatments contain microbes that live within plant tissue, unlike existing microbial seed treatments that contain microbes that live around the roots.[13] The first product, Indigo Cotton, a seed treatment containing bacteria isolated from cotton plants that is intended to improve yields under drought conditions was launched in July 2016.[14] By 2018 the company has also launched similar seed treatments to improve drought resistance in wheat, corn, soybeans, rice, and barley.[15] During 2016, the company released commercial data about its various products targeting cotton, wheat, and corn.[15][16] In the United States, Indigo contracts with growers to purchase their crops at a premium and resell them to buyers, and assists with logistics.[2] In 2017, the first year this model was implemented, Indigo contracted approximately half a million acres in cotton, wheat, corn, soy, and rice.[16] In 2019, Indigo announced a project to create carbon credits by measuring the carbon that farm fields have in their soil, selling those credits to companies who want to reduce their carbon footprint.[4]

Partnerships

Indigo has previously partnered with Anheuser-Busch, having sold 2.2 million bushels of rice coming from growers contracted to produce crops that use 10 percent less water and nitrogen than the average, and save at least 10 percent on greenhouse gas emissions compared to state benchmarks.[17] Indigo has also collaborated with Dogfish Head Brewery via Indigo Carbon, creating a traceably sourced beer using sustainable wheat grown using regenerative farming, called Re-Gen-Ale.[18]

References
  1. Lynley, Matthew. "Indigo Is Mapping Plant Microbiomes To Produce Next Generation Crops". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-03-15.
  2. Hopkins, Matt. "Indigo Launches On Farm Storage to Facilitate A Direct Farmer to Buyer Grain Marketplace". PrecisionAg.com. Retrieved 2018-03-01.
  3. Rosen, Andy (September 2, 2020) CEO leaves high-flying Boston startup Indigo Ag Boston Globe
  4. Bunge, Jacob (22 August 2021). "How a Billion-Dollar Farm-Tech Startup Stumbled, Then Revamped". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2 September 2021.
  5. "One startup's plan to grow more crops: put the germs back in". The Verge. Retrieved 2016-03-15.
  6. "Flagship Pioneers New Name, $285M 'Special Opportunities' Fund | Xconomy". Xconomy. 2016-12-15. Retrieved 2017-03-17.
  7. "This Bug Startup Just Raised $100 Million To Fight Hunger". Fortune. 2016-07-21. Retrieved 2016-08-03.
  8. Brokaw, Alex (2016-07-21). "New probiotic seeds grow crops that require less water to survive". The Verge. Retrieved 2016-08-03.
  9. "Indigo Agriculture is Boston's newest 'unicorn' startup". bostonglobe.com. 2017-09-26. Retrieved 2018-08-06.
  10. Kreznar, Christian. "Indigo Agriculture Closes $250M To Launch Digital Farmer's Market".
  11. "CNBC Disruptor 50". CNBC. 25 May 2021. Retrieved 2 September 2021.
  12. Kolodny, Lora. "Indigo Ag expands its ambitions to reward farmers for fighting global warming, adds Moderna CEO to board".
  13. "Startup Bets Its Magic Touch on Seeds Can Boost Crop Yields". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved 2016-03-15.
  14. Brewster, Signe. "A seed grows in Boston". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-08-03.
  15. Shaw, Jonathan. "Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security". Harvard Magazine. Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  16. Steadman, Jim. "Indigo Offers Premium for Cottom Production". CottonGrower.com. Retrieved 2018-01-09.
  17. Akers, Greg. "Indigo Ag partners up with Anheuser-Busch on sustainable rice". www.bizjournals.com.
  18. Osburn, Christopher (17 September 2020). "Dogfish Head Is Launching The First Beer With Traceable Grain Sourcing". UPROXX.
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