Pattern Ag, an Emeryville agtech prediction platform, recently announced it raised $35 million in a Series B funding round led by Conti Ventures. The new funding brings the company’s total capital raised to date to $60 million and will help Pattern expand its intellectual property portfolio.
Pattern helps soy and corn farmers track pest, pathogen, biofertility and nutrient levels in their soil. These analytics allow farmers to make predictions about what kind of crop protection, seed selection and fertility decisions they’ll need to make for the upcoming growing season.
“Building a computational platform for agriculture starts with data,” Pattern CEO Rob Hranac said in a statement. “Thanks to our customers, we have built the largest soil metagenomics dataset in agriculture. Ultimately, this data will drive the next generation of machine learning for predictive product placement in farms globally.”
In the four years since its founding, Pattern’s analytics platform has been a success so far. According to the company, farmers who use its platform experience a minimum profit boost of $60 per acre.
“Pattern’s results shocked us. Sudden death syndrome (SDS) in soybeans is not usually a concern, so we don’t typically treat it. When we saw how high our field pressure was for SDS, it was a red flag for us,” one of Pattern’s customers Paul Sittig, owner of Amber View Farms, said in a statement. “We are used to getting 70 bushel an acre soybeans, but with this new information, and treating for a disease we didn’t even know we had, this may push us to 75 or 80 bushel an acre beans.”
Pattern expects to serve thousands of growers this year and sample the soil of over one million acres.
