Raven’s acquisition of Smart Ag is expected to bring perception and path planning capabilities to the company’s precision agriculture technologies
Image: Raven Industries acquires agriculture technology startup Smart Ag. Photo: Courtesy of Franz W./Pixabay
Raven Industries, a provider of precision agriculture solutions, has acquired Smart Ag, a technology company developing autonomous farming solutions for agriculture, for an undisclosed amount.
Smart Ag will become part of Raven Autonomy and Raven plans to deliver autonomous solutions for agriculture to help both its original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partners and ag retailers become successful.
Headquartered in Ames, Iowa, Smart Ag was founded in 2015. The company aims to address the problem of growing labour crisis in production agriculture.
Smart Ag’s platform connects, manages and operates autonomous agriculture machinery
At present, the startup offers aftermarket retrofit kits to automate farm equipment along with a platform to connect, manage and safely operate autonomous agriculture machinery.
Smart Ag’s technology stack is claimed to be easy to use and is modular which is ideal in terms of scalability. In addition to its technology, Smart Ag brings a dealer network and a skilled development team to Raven.
Raven Industries president and CEO Dan Rykhus said: “The acquisition of Smart Ag is part of a bold, company-wide strategy for Raven. It is a key investment in Raven Autonomy, one of our two strategic growth platforms.
“Autonomy in agriculture is the future of farming, and this acquisition, coupled with our existing precision agriculture solutions, solidifies our position as a technology leader within this market.”
Coupled with Raven’s recent acquisition of a stake in DOT Technology, the acquisition of Smart Ag is expected to bring perception and path planning capabilities to the company’s precision agriculture technologies.
Raven Applied Technology division vice president Brian Meyer said: “Raven’s experience in machine and application control is a perfect complement to the autonomous machine control developed by Smart Ag.
“Together, the expertise of both companies will allow for more operations to be performed in-field — with a significant increase in both performance and outputs.
“By automating existing machine platforms and implements, driverless machines have great potential to complement the work of manned machine operations in the field.”