Three Tech Acquisitions in Two Months, Semios Is In Building Mode
On August 24, Semios announced its acquisition of AgWorld and its farm management platform.
This is the third business deal in short order for the Vancouver based tech company. It had previously acquired Altrac and Centricity to build out its offering for automation, control and compliance.
However, the AgWorld acquisition steps the business into a new customer base (ag retailers) and a new product focus (row crop agriculture).
Semios has built an independent precision farming platform for permanent crops (with the greatest footprint in apples, grapes, cherries, pistachios and almonds in California, Oregon and Washington).
Semios CEO Michael Gilbert says the company is aiming to deliver a single login for centralized crop management data into one, easy-to-use, end-to-end solution.
“This was almost a year in the works,” he says. “We asked customers who they’d like us to partner with or even consider acquiring, and AgWorld has an amazing brand presence, and our customers love their product.”
Currently, Semios’ product includes a focus on internet of things sensors installed in the field to monitor for insects, diseases, irrigation and stress.
Gilbert explains that while Semios legacy products help provide in-season tools such as crop monitoring and pest sensors, AgWorld’s software will add pre- and post-season planning tools. The company has more than 2 million sensors being used in agriculture.
“We think it’s important to build a platform for the growers to trust,” he says. “There’s a place in this market for an independent steward of the data. And with 100 million acres on our platform now, we believe we are one of the largest independent companies with the biggest footprint.”
The AgWorld acquisition included its team and product—so the same leaders will now be part of Semios and the company will work independently.
So what does this acquisition mean?
Gilbert says for sure the company will expand into more row crops.
The first results of the acquisition will be more integration between the products and each having an influence on the other for finding new growth.
“In permanent crops, you will start seeing data transfer between planning and execution. And we’ll start seeing the agronomy portion of row crops be added to the World planning solution. The risks and the timing with decision making tools---that’s what we do well.”
What’s the future of technology used in agriculture look like?
“We are in building mode,” Gilbert says. “This is our third acquisition in two months.”
The Altrac acquisition added automation and remote management controls to the Semios platform. Centricity added data sharing tools.
And the integration and consolidation of technologies can’t happen fast enough for Gilbert.
“The consolidation game has taken longer than expected. There are more than 1,000 ag tech companies—and that’s a lot in any industry,” he says. “Growers are early adopter and enamored with technology. It’s time we have platforms that can serve up these solutions for them.”
