Growers Edge closes $5 million debt facility from SVB

Growers Edge announced last week that it has raised a $5 million venture debt facility through California-based Silicon Valley Bank. “Anytime you get an investment from a more traditional venture firm, they expect a lot of return and they take a significant amount of equity for that investment. This venture debt has some equity associated with it but primarily is a loan. So it allows us to grow quickly without further diluting our equity or our cap table.” – Growers Edge CEO Dan Cosgrove.

The news follows a $40 million Series B round; announced last summer.

Founded in 2017, Growers Edge offers financial solutions to agtech vendors. Its intelligence platform uses data to design warranty-backed crop management plans by using a field’s federal crop insurance actual production history (APH) that dates back 4 to 10 years in pricing. Retailers that work with Growers Edge put their own brand on a warranty-backed crop plan that typically covers 90 percent to 100 percent of a farmer’s APH crop insurance yields. While there’s no such thing as risk-free farming, outcome-based warranty solutions come close. Some companies offer programs that guarantee a certain metric, such as a yield goal, disease-free field, or irrigation equipment alert. If this metric is not reached, farmers receive a refund in cash or product. And, with digital agriculture software, it is now possible to form a predictive model that establishes performance metrics if certain products are used as recommended.