Agrium also is expected to join a core group of strategic investors in Finistere across the agriculture, farming and food industries.
Financial details of the investment were not disclosed, but Agrium said the investment will play an important role in supporting its innovation and technology strategy of developing a total-acre solutions’ offering that is well-positioned to address existing and emerging grower challenges. Agrium also is expected to join a core group of strategic investors in Finistere across the agriculture, farming and food industries, which will provide access to unique collaboration and partnership opportunities.
“We believe this investment will significantly enhance Agrium’s ability to access and evaluate the pipeline of rapidly evolving agricultural technologies, which will enable us to continue expanding our strong portfolio of innovative products and solutions for growers,” said Chuck Magro, president and CEO of Agrium. “Agrium is in an excellent position to commercialize these new technologies across our 1,400 ag-retail centers, which service hundreds of thousands of growers in key agricultural markets.”
Agrium produces and distributes agricultural products and services in North America, South America, Australia and Egypt through its agricultural retail-distribution and wholesale nutrient businesses. The company supplies growers with crop nutrients, crop protection, seed, and agronomic and application services, and produces nitrogen, potash and phosphate fertilizers, with a combined wholesale nutrient capacity of over 9 million tonnes. Agrium owns more than 1,400 facilities and approximately 3,800 crop consultants.
Finistere Ventures is an agricultural technology and life sciences venture capital investor with offices in Silicon Valley and San Diego, California, U.S. In June, Finistere and fellow agtech venture capital firm Cloud Break Advisors joined forces with an alliance of top ag industry leaders, including Bayer, DuPont and OurCrowd, an Israeli equity crowdfunding platform, to found and launch Radicle, an accelerator aimed at advancing early stage agricultural technology startups. By incubating leading agtech companies, Radicle works to reduce the time required to develop, market and commercialize the latest ag technologies that may solve global farming dilemmas. Finistere’s portfolio also includes CropX, an ag analytics company that has developed an advanced adaptive irrigation service, and ZeaKal, Inc., a next generation traits technology company.
