Here is some new news on Farmers Edge, one of Fairfax’s private investments.
Farmers Edge and Fairfax Brasil Partner to Bring Data-Driven Crop Insurance to Growers in Brazil
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https://business.financialpost.com/pmn/press-releases-pmn/business-wire-news-releases-pmn/farmers-edge-and-fairfax-brasil-partner-to-bring-data-driven-crop-insurance-to-growers-in-brazilHere is the summary on the company provided by Fairfax in their 2018 annual report.
“Farmers Edge. Farmers Edge was founded in 2005 by Wade Barnes in Winnipeg, Manitoba as a project-based consulting company providing value added agronomy services for large scale farmers. The business has since evolved into one of the leading SaaS (software as a service) farm management platforms with 24 million acres under management as of December 2018, with an anticipated increase to 40 million acres by the end of 2019. Key services offered under the Farmers Edge platform include: 1) One of the highest density of weather stations in North America. Farmers can have alerts sent to their phones, even at 4am, if there is to be frost on one of their farms. Important, as there is only one harvest! 2) Daily satellite imagery to track crop health via tablet, phone or PC. 3) Brand-agnostic telematics enabling passive data collection. 4) Soil sampling and variable rate fertilizer application, which allows farms to increase yields with less overall fertilizer application. Four-year customer contracts provide Farmers Edge with predictable recurring revenue and cash flows. Fairfax made a $95 million equity investment in March 2017 and has since provided additional funding of $64 million in the form of debentures plus warrants, based on an implied valuation of 4x projected December 2019 base business EBITDA.”
