Agworld, which claims to be “Australia’s leading information management and cloud collaboration software for the agricultural industry”, today announced it raised an AU $6 million Series C round of financing led by Reed Elsevier Ventures with participation from existing Agworld investor, Yuuwa Capital.
The funding, which brings the company’s total equity raised to AU $12 million, will be used to support its expansion into the North American agricultural market while continuing to enhance the core Agworld product offering across the value chain for the Australian market.
“Agworld’s tremendous success in Australia reflects the rapidly changing future of farm production,” said Tony Askew, General Partner of Reed Elsevier Ventures. “We are very excited to help Agworld expand into the US market so that farmers and agronomists around the world can harness the value of their farming data with Agworld’s leading mobile and cloud technology.”
To quote some history from their website;
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In February 2008 Doug Fitch and Chris Ramsey began discussions on the idea for Agworld, a platform for farmers and suppliers in the agriculture industry to connect and share data. They spent many hours researching how this type of model could work in Australia’s agricultural industry and how they could empower the farmer with financial and operational information delivered back to the farm gate. Once Fitch and Ramsey had a basic model of the Agworld business they knew they required a software developer who had both commercial and technical competence.
Fitch contacted Matthew Powell and their first meeting was held in August 2008. Powell introduced Fitch and Ramsey to the digital pen technology at that first meeting. The three agreed that the inclusion of the digital pen technology would begin to solve the industry problem of capturing mobile data in field to support farm management decisions. By April 2009 the initial database oriented model was up and running and new information was being added and tested daily. Between May and December 2009 the product was trialled with some innovative famers and agronomists throughout the Western Australian wheat belt. Agworld was launched on the 8th of December 2009.
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Agworld provides a centralised software platform for each participant involved in the crop production process, allowing for real-time collaboration and management of critical information, activities and recommendations throughout the crop production cycle. Agworld’s extensive features include decision-making tools such as comprehensive crop production plans, geospatial data interrogation, agronomist recommendations, and financial and crop performance reporting.
“It’s all about farmers and their service providers understanding the core risks and opportunities for their business in the context of that specific location and farm entity,” said Doug.
“As the venture capital arm of one of the largest global data and information solutions companies, Reed Elsevier Ventures is an ideal investment partner for Agworld, bringing with them extensive knowledge of the big data industry and fast moving SaaS business models,” said Doug. “This infusion of capital allows us to remain at the forefront of the agricultural information management and big data markets, while we continue to change the way growers, advisors and suppliers capture unique insights to improve farm operations.”
For more information, visit www.agworld.com.au.
