Growers Edge, a provider of data-driven financial technology solutions for the agricultural industry, has won the 2020 AgTech Finance Solution of the Year.
Run by AgTech Breakthrough, a market intelligence organization, the inaugural AgTech Breakthrough Awards program recognizes innovative companies, technologies, and products in a range of agricultural and food technology categories.
“Generally, farmers and some of their bankers want to avoid financial risk – even when it could boost profitability and long-term sustainability – so adoption of advanced technologies on farms and in fields has been challenging,” said Dan Cosgrove, CEO of Growers Edge in an announcement. “Growers Edge is leading the drive to increase technology adoption by incentivizing farmers to take the leap – giving them a way to both manage risk and gain access to capital.”
In July, Growers Edge closed a $40 million Series B round of financing to accelerate the development of its financial technology products, solutions, and tools for the ag industry. This is the largest investment round an Iowa-based company has raised so far in 2019.
Prairie Crest Capital participates in $4 million investment round in TradeLanes
TradeLanes, a software provider that helps exporters manage the logistics and compliance elements of trades to increase profit margin per shipment, has raised a $4 million investment round.
The new investment round will enable TradeLanes, which applies advanced technology and machine learning to digitize global trade for large B2B transactions, to deepen the functionality of the platform and expand service to exporters in additional commodity verticals.
The round was led by S2G Ventures with participation from iSelect Fund, Innova Memphis, Prairie Crest Capital, Bread & Butter Ventures, Closed Loop Partners, Techstars Ventures, Turas Mara, and 5G.
2021 Des Moines Charity Hackathon cancelled
For the first time in seven years, the dsmHack Hackathon is cancelled due to concerns over increasing rates of COVID-19 infections in Iowa.
“As a non-profit organization ourselves, the dsmHack board will take this opportunity to work on some things internally- update systems and processes, recruit new board members and reach out to past participants to check in during these difficult times,” wrote the organization in an announcement. “Keep up with things via social media platforms and feel free to reach out to the board with any questions.”
