Bushel Acquires ADM/Cargill's JV Service GrainBridge

Bushel, an independently-owned software technology company focused on developing solutions for the grain supply chain, has announced its acquisition of GrainBridge, LLC, a joint venture owned by ADM and Cargill Incorporated.

GrainBridge employees will join the Bushel team and remain based in Omaha, NE. Their data expertise will help to further strengthen the end-to-end capabilities of the Bushel platform and enable Bushel’s customers to better serve their farm customers. ADM and Cargill will be working with their customers to transition to the Bushel platform providing a more expansive offering.

“Innovation is one of the pillars of ADM’s strategy, and we’re committed to continually improving and expanding digital technology to help support the producers who grow our food,” said Doug Roose, Vice President Producer Marketing, ADM. “In 2019 we were proud to announce GrainBridge, a joint effort with Cargill to bring together new and useful tools for farmers in a single, easy-to-use digital platform. Now, we’re excited to take the next step: Bringing GrainBridge and Bushel together will give farmers a path to new features and functionality, including existing staples like the ability to see local cash bids and account information. This is a win for producers, and it’s a win for our industry, as we continue to innovate and improve to strengthen the entire food and ag value chain.”

ADM joins Cargill and more than 200 other local country cooperatives, processors, feed mills, ethanol plants, and other biofuel companies who are collaborating in building the industry’s largest digital infrastructure network.

The acquisition complements Bushel’s strategic focus to enable, not disrupt, the agriculture industry and lead it into the digital age with strategies that solve real pain points and provide value for all stakeholders in the ag and food value chain. By providing permission-based data sharing and visualization, there will be improved data-based decision-making. These connections can support all points of the supply chain from grower to grain origination to consumer packaged goods (CPG companies).

Specific examples include:

Increased grower profitability at the field level through more data-driven decision-making. Bushel’s data insights capabilities will help educate grain buyers and sellers about forecasted trends and best practices related to grain marketing.

Increased visibility for food processors sourcing for specific traits such as higher protein or oil content within their customer base.

Verification to support sustainability credits and corporate targets for CPG companies through a “grain passport.”

“ADM and Cargill came together with GrainBridge to better understand the digital grain marketing landscape. This next step of bringing GrainBridge together with Bushel will provide better outcomes for farmers by improving their grain marketing and selling practices,” said Jeff Klock, Global Digital Strategy Leader, Cargill. “We look forward to continuing to engage with Bushel to continue our journey to understand and serve the market not just for today, but for the future.”’

Because both Bushel and GrainBridge collaborate with a number of different partners throughout the grain supply chain, this acquisition will continue to maintain the standard of permission-based control within the sharing of data. Both growers and grain buying facilities will maintain control over when and how their data will be shared throughout the supply chain. The partners who the grower and the grain facility choose to do business with are integrated directly into the software so the information is readily accessible and does not require manual data entry.

“The collaboration of the grain industry behind Bushel will lead to faster standardization, which leads to faster innovation. As an industry, it is more efficient to be working together and collaborating on resources to improve the North American grain trade,” said CEO Jake Joraanstad. “Adding the GrainBridge team members to Bushel gives us stronger data science capabilities to provide even better insights from our expanded network.”