Farmnote Holdings, a Japanese agtech company and supplier of IoT solutions to the dairy and livestock industries, announced it has raised 500 million yen (US$4.5 million) in funding in a round involving four investors: the Innovation Network Corporation of Japan, the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations (Zen-Noh), the Norinchukin Bank, and Sumitomo Corporation. This round brings Farmnote’s total funding to date to 1.1 billion yen, or about US$9 million.
Founded in 2013 and located in Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido, Farmnote has developed a herd management system through the integrated use of wearable sensor devices and a cloud-based system designed to streamline and increase efficiency in livestock and dairy production.
Using artificial intelligence, Farmnote’s wearable-based IoT platform system enables ranchers and farmers to realize optimal herd management through gathering and analyzing cattle activity data in real time. Through the systems, wearable collar sensors called “Farmnote Color”, worn by animals transmit data via radio waves to ‘gateway’ stations located in multiple locations on the ranch or farm to transmit behavioral information wirelessly to the owner or manager’s smartphone.
Although a relatively new option for dairy and livestock producers, wearable sensors and collar technology in the agriculture sector is expected to climb from a market value of $1 billion today to $2.5 billion by 2025 as adoption of precision ag technologies becomes more mainstream, according to Sensors Magazine reports Modern Farmer.
Farmnote states that it plans to use the fresh capital to fund the acceleration of its R&D initiatives with particular focus on furthering AI technological applications in agricultural production.
Furthermore, through the tie-up, Sumitomo will assume the task of extending the reach of Farmnote and Farmnote Color to overseas markets through its extensive global network of 22 domestic and 108 overseas offices in 66 countries, and will work with Farmnote to expand beyond the dairy and cattle sectors to create a platform for tillage.
Meanwhile, Zen-noh is partnering with Farmnote to develop and disseminate system platforms and sensor devices that will lift the incomes of agricultural producers through the adoption of information and communication technologies (ICT).
This round for Farmnote follows upon a $1.7 million round raised by the company in September of 2015 involving Tokyo-based trading company, Kanematsu, Kanematsu Agritech; Japanese gaming company, Gree; Executive Vice President and co-founder of Colopl, Kotaro Chiba; Six Apart CTO Daiji Hirata; and an additional undisclosed Japanese company.
At that time, Farmnote founder, Shinya Kobayashi said, “The Japanese livestock market is larger than rice farming and valued at about US$20 billion. Consolidated with other businesses, like feed producers or distribution channels for livestock, the market can be considered three or four times bigger. Starting with the services for the livestock industry, we want to collect data on animals and crops in the global farming market of the future.”
-Lynda Kiernan
Lynda Kiernan is Editor with GAI Media and daily contributor to GAI News. If you would like to submit a contribution for consideration, please contact Ms. Kiernan at lkiernan@globalaginvesting.com.
The post Japan’s Farmnote Raises $4.5M appeared first on Global AgInvesting.