September 30, 2021

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

Semios, a leading Canadian, data-driven, precision farming platform for permanent and row crops, has raised $100 million in capital to fund the global expansion of its agtech solutions to help the world’s growers reduce chemical inputs, strengthen water efficiency, organize farming data, and improve crop outcomes. 

This round was led by Boston-based Morningside Group, a private equity and venture capital firm committed to backing socially responsible businesses, which also led a previous $100 million round for Semios in February 2020.

Founded in Vancouver in 2010, Semios offers real-time crop data and pest management tools for nut, tree fruit, and vine crop growers by leveraging a proprietary in-orchard IoT wireless network that monitors climate, soil moisture, and insect and disease activity with machine learning and big data analytic capabilities to help farmers manage insect pests, disease, frost, and irrigation demands. Its patented mesh network allows the company to install remote-controlled pheromone dispensers, camera traps for pests, soil moisture sensors, and leaf wetness devices for total coverage of every orchard block, delivering more than 500 million data points.

With more than 120 million acres of row and permanent crops under management, Semios serves growers, agronomists, and ag retailers across the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, and South Africa with a suite of diverse farm management planning, logistics and execution, record keeping, agronomy, and automation services. 

“Semios is on a mission to simplify the grower’s experience, leveraging big data analytics and machine learning to help them mitigate crop risk so they can focus on growing more food, more sustainably,” said Dr. Michael Gilbert, CEO, Semios. “We have seen first-hand the challenges our customers are facing in the field – from severe drought and devastating fires, to frost, reduced profitability and an increasing regulatory burden. But, in the face of these challenges, farmers are adapting to meet the nutritional needs of our growing population with new technologies.”

This June, Semios went on to make two acquisitions – of California-based Altrac and Washington State-based Centricity – strengthening its ability to deliver more value to farmers via greater automation, control, and compliance – benefits needed by today’s growers as they face increasingly challenging conditions.

Two months later, in August 2021, Semios acquired Agworld, an Australian data-driven farm management platform, resulting in one of the largest independent agtech solution companies in the world.

Gilbert commented, “Our recent acquisitions are aimed at bringing the tools farmers need to manage their crops under one roof.  This latest round of funding will help us continue to support the agricultural industry as it faces some of its toughest challenges yet.”

This continued integration of third-party ag solutions into its crop management platform creates a place where growers get the most accurate view of their crop’s development in real time, in one place. This leads to improved decision making, and ultimately, higher-quality crops as growing conditions become more volatile due to climate change.

As Semios continues to pursue its strategy of growing its crop management platform by partnering with other leading decision-aid farming solutions, the company continues to garner recognition for excellence, being named to the Global Cleantech 100 – a yearly list of the 100 most innovative cleantech companies in the world – and the Thrive Top 50 – a list of the 50 leading global agtech companies.

This latest round brings the external capital raised to-date by Semios to $225 million. With this funding, the company stated that it will enable the acceleration of its R&D activities, and the deployment of solutions on a global scale.

“Morningside invests in companies committed to tackling pressing global challenges head on,” said Mick Sawka, investment manager, Morningside Group. “The ability to not only maintain but also enhance the sustainability of our food systems amid the complex dynamics of a changing climate is one of the world’s most pressing needs of our time. Semios is a leader in helping farmers respond to this challenge and we’re proud to stand beside them.”

– Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, as well as HighQuest Group’s Oilseed & Grain News. She can be reached at lkiernan-stone@globalaginvesting.com.