FarmLogs Raises $4M Series A To Further Advance Farming Into The Age of Apps

Just a year after securing $1 million in seed funding, Michigan-based FarmLogs is announcing a $4 million Series A led by Drive Capital. The company says it is looking forward to a big 2014 and the co-founder and CEO tells me the company will use the influx of cash to execute on an aggressive product growth plan for the upcoming year.

Jesse Vollmar, CEO and co-founder of FarmLogs, explained to me that the company is building out its product to intelligently predict and optimize crop rotations as well as automate activity data collection. FarmLogs is also looking to ingest data collected by modern farming equipment that he tells me traditionally is rarely exported. By using low-cost Bluetooth hardware, the company expects to be able to analyse and upload this data in real time.

The Y Combinator alum touts the fact that 5% of farms in the US. are currently using its software. It’s an impressive stat considering the startup just graduated from YC in early 2012.

Drive Capital led the funding with existing investors Huron River Ventures, Hyde Park Venture Partners and Hyde Park Angels, also participating in the investment.

“We are very excited about the trajectory we are on and having additional support and resources will continue to accelerate our growth,” said Jesse Vollmar in a released statement. “We’ve helped thousands of farmers around the world take advantage of technology, and with their feedback and suggestions they’ve helped us create a smarter future for farming.”

FarmLogs’ data-driven approach to farming leans on the mobile web to help crop farmers quickly and efficiently forecast profits, track expenses and more efficiently schedule operations. Best yet, the software utilizes GPS for additional data about any given location’s historical weather data. Farms can quickly jot down notes and input data using the software’s mobile app. It’s a radical revolution for the age-old industry.

FarmLogs launched to an industry ripe for modernization. The incumbent software requires traditional Wintel computers. FarmLogs requires just an iPad, which although admittedly the extent of my “farming” consists of rebuilding a tiller a few years back, seems like a much friendlier device to have in a tractor than a laptop.