Farm production management firm Solinftec receives $60 million investment​

Solinftec, one of the world's largest independent precision agriculture companies, has secured a $60 million growth investment round led by the Lightsmith Group. The investment will enable the company to further expand its digital farm operations platform in North America and South America.

Lightsmith is joining existing investors in the company, Unbox Capital, which also participated in the round, and Circularis Partners (TPG ART). Additional undisclosed investors are also participating in the round.

Solinftec's digital farm operating system is used to manage more than 27 million acres in Brazil, the United States, and across Latin America, by growers, cooperatives, and agricultural retailers for field crops such as sugarcane, soy, corn, and cotton, and perennial crops such as citrus, coffee, and timber.

Solinftec serves 85% of Brazilian sugarcane growers, the top 5 grains producers in Brazil, and GROWMARK, one of North America's largest agricultural cooperatives. The company is based in Aracatuba, Brazil and West Lafayette, Indiana, and has more than 700 employees worldwide.

Since 2007, Solinftec has been developing solutions to solve the practical challenges faced by growers in managing their complex farming operations. The company deploys sensors, computers, and displays in farm equipment to provide customers with a rich set of real-time, in-field data on crops, equipment, inputs, and weather conditions. Solinftec's farm operations management software, powered by its artificial intelligence platform, ALICE AI, allows customers to optimally schedule and plan their farming operations and to make real-time decisions and adjustments to ensure the best, real-world results.

ALICE AI is an integrated, end-to-end farm operations management platform covering all key operations and equipment on farms, including planting, spraying, harvesting, and tendering. Solinftec recently added to its farm operations management platform with the launch of its robot to autonomously scan and monitor fields, providing farmers and agronomists with a new level of data to further increase yields, avoid wasted inputs, and lower environmental impacts.

Lightsmith's investment is part of its focus on investing in growth-stage climate resilience solutions companies - technology companies in agriculture and food, energy, water, finance, and supply chains that can help to assess and manage the increased risks and impacts from climate change.

"As climate change and other disruptions continue to put pressure on agricultural productivity and food costs, we need to scale solutions that can help farmers increase productivity per acre while reducing input usage and increasing their responsiveness to changing climate and weather conditions," notes Sanjay Wagle, Managing Director at the Lightsmith Group. "We are excited to partner with Solinftec in their next stage of growth to become the 'operating system' for intelligent, sustainable, and resilient farming."

"Disruptive technology, in other words, artificial intelligence, data, and automation, can help the agricultural sector overcome its biggest challenge: to produce more food in every square meter of land, with less impact," said Solinftec CEO Britaldo Hernandez. "Our mission is to give each farm a sustainable future, promoting the accessibility of technologies to producers and transforming agriculture into a more productive practice, while preserving the planet," he added.