Ag Minute: The Role of Startups in Agriculture
- Sangamon County News
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
Startups play a critical role in agriculture by developing new technologies and business models to address the industry’s evolving challenges. While much of the ag startup ecosystem operates outside the day-to-day view of farmers and ag professionals, billions of dollars are invested each year in companies building agronomy tools, management platforms, specialty seed varieties, and other solutions. These companies often rely on a mix of angel investors, venture capital, and grant funding to refine their products and reach scale.
Most people are familiar with high-profile technology startups that have emerged in the 21st century, but agriculture has proven to be a more difficult space to penetrate. Companies like Airbnb, Uber, and OpenAI fundamentally reshaped their industries while raising massive amounts of capital along the way. Airbnb, founded in 2007, is now valued at roughly $73.5 billion. Agriculture-focused startups, by contrast, tend to grow more slowly and often end up being acquired by larger incumbents rather than reaching public markets.
Food and beverage startups highlight this contrast well. Poppi, a prebiotic soda brand, launched in 2018 and was acquired by PepsiCo for $1.95 billion in 2025. Its rapid growth was driven in large part by a business-to-consumer (B2C) model. Agriculture, on the other hand, is largely a business-to-business (B2B) market. While farmers often blur the line between business and consumer, selling directly to producers presents unique challenges. Seed sales are a good example: convincing a farmer to try a new corn hybrid usually requires on-farm trials, trusted relationships with a seed representative, and strong brand credibility. As a result, farmers tend to be cautious adopters of new technology, making market entry difficult for early-stage ag tech companies.
That conservative mindset, however, can also be an opportunity—particularly for startups committed to the long term. As a more digitally native generation becomes increasingly involved in farming, adoption of technology is likely to accelerate. Agriculture will always be driven by physical products and personal relationships with grain merchandisers, agronomists, consultants, and sales representatives, but the way those roles interact is changing. Many successful ag tech startups position themselves not as replacements, but as tools that make these relationships more efficient and effective.
Below are a few software-focused startups at different stages of growth that support farmers or those working closest with them:
Company | Last Fundraising Round | Valuation at Last Round | Description |
CamoAg | Series A | $37M | Palatine, IL-based company specializing in farmland scouting, leasing, and purchasing |
Fieldist | Pre-Seed | $1M | Indianapolis-based platform that allows agronomists and sales reps to dictate notes, which are automatically captured and organized by an AI agent |
PickTrace | Series B | $61.2M | Glendale, CA-based company helping large-scale farms manage labor, payroll, and harvest operations |
Croft | Seed | $8M | Indianapolis-based company focused on H-2A labor onboarding and management |
*Information according to PitchBook
Each of these companies follows a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model and targets farmers or ag-adjacent professionals. While there are many others like them, each began by identifying a specific pain point within the industry. To raise capital, these startups must demonstrate that the problem they are solving is real, that customers are willing to pay for a solution, and that the total market is large enough to support venture-scale growth. For many investors, that means a credible path to $100 million in annual recurring revenue—an especially high bar in agriculture, particularly during downturns like the current one.
Beyond software, a growing number of hardware startups are focused on autonomy, robotics, and biological solutions aimed at reshaping on-farm production systems. Companies such as Grain Weevil seek to reduce human injury and manual labor, while Sobanto and Bonsai Robotics are developing autonomous platforms to address labor shortages in the field.
Innovation across both software and hardware is essential for the future of agriculture, and the industry needs more of it. Agriculture is a difficult and often expensive space to innovate in, especially given the importance of trust and personal relationships in customer acquisition. Still, startups that understand these dynamics and find creative ways to access new sales channels can scale successfully. While many of the most successful companies are eventually acquired by larger players seeking innovation, it takes a steady pipeline of new startups to introduce fresh workflows, ideas, and technologies that move the industry forward.
For a deeper look at how major tech startups originate, including Airbnb, see the link below: