16 Years After Founding Farmers Edge, Wade Barnes Steps Down
On Friday, March 25 after 5 pm eastern time, Farmers Edge announced its founder Wade Barnes will no longer lead the company as CEO.
His tenure will officially end when the board finds his successor, but until then, he’ll to function the CEO role and help with the transition. After that time, he’ll retain his seat on the board of directors and “will continue to be involved in helping steer the business,” as stated in the company’s news release.
Founded in 2005, Farmers Edge went public in March of 2021. At the time it went public, the company’s market capitalization was $612.5 million, but had dropped to $115.2 million in November 2021.
From tech analyst Shane Thomas of Upstream Ag Insights, “The consistent topic I have brought up when writing about Farmers Edge has been around execution. One year into Farmers Edge foray into public markets, execution of their targets has remained elusive”
Thomas highlighted how in 2021 Farmers Edge lost more acres in its digital agronomy portfolio than had been added.
He also shared, “since their inception, they have had cash injections of more than double what their current business is worth all while still having unprofitable unit economics in their core service offerings indicating there isn’t a short or medium term end in sight.”
You can read more analysis from Thomas here.
On April 1, the company announced two new hires in executive roles: Rob Meijer as Executive Vice President of Corporate Development and Matt Hesse as Executive Vice President of Global Operations.
Meijer will be responsible for corporate development, including strategic partnerships, joint ventures, and global sustainability initiatives to accelerate its long-term growth. Meijer has held high-profile positions for Canada Beef Inc., and Cargill Ltd.
Hesse's role will focus on improving global operational systems from the ground level to support scalability and seamless execution. He brings 25 years of experience leading teams in retail and precision agriculture including roles at Winfield United, AGCO, Trimble and FieldReveal.
In August of 2021, Farmers Edge acquired CommoditAg. At that time, he detailed to Farm Journal in a one-on-one interview how the acquisition was going to help the company build out its digital ecosystem.
Farmers Edge is based in Canada with business in the U.S., Ukraine and Russia.
Farmers Edge has a webcast scheduled for March 29 at 8:30 am eastern. Scroll down through its quarterly report to find the live webcast details here. https://www.farmersedge.ca/farmers-edge-reports-fourth-quarter-2021-results/
