A Madison-based startup and genera8tor alum that’s changing the way agriculture companies do business has raised some seed funding to help it expand.
Agrograph, founded in 2016 by Mutlu Ozdogan and Jim O’Brien, makes a software that combines satellite imagery, field data and machine learning algorithms to provide yield estimates for crops at the field level.
Different from other ag-tech companies that provide services directly to farmers, Agrograph gives its data to the industry players, which include crop insurance companies, agriculture lending and finance companies, and grain distributors, O’Brien said.
“Farmers operate on a field scale, but the industry operates today on a regional scale and the reason they do that is because they haven’t been able to reach down to the field scale,” O’Brien said. “There’s very technical limitations that have prevented them from doing that. We’re helping to solve that.”
Earlier this month, Agrograph raised $500,000 in seed funding from the Idea Fund of La Crosse, which funds early-stage Wisconsin startups. The founders said they will be using the new financing to hire more software developers and to build out its tech.
The startup initially got its start at Madison-based startup accelerator gener8tor in 2016, when it participated in gener8tor's gBETA program.
Because Agrograph is still perfecting its software, O’Brien said its six clients are using it in free pilot trials. O’Brien would not disclose any of the specific companies piloting Agrograph, but said they hope to turn them into paying customers within the next year.
“They’re evaluating two things—the accuracy of the product, as well as how this information adds value to their business practices,” Ozdogan said.
Agrograph, which employs three people right now, aims to raise a Series A funding round between $1 and $2 million within the next year.
“We have data and expertise that no one else has,” O’Brien said. “As a result, we are filling an industry gap and, in turn, delivering valuable solutions faster.”
