Landus, Iowa’s biggest agricultural cooperative, is creating a new tech company to provide farmers with services such as bank loans and crop analysis, according to a Bloomberg report.
The new venture, Conduit, will offer 0% financing to qualified borrowers on all in-season purchases of farm inputs, according to Landus. It will also make financing available in some states for land, input, and equipment loans.
The launch of Conduit comes at a difficult time for some digital startups in the $1.5 trillion US agricultural industry. While just a few years earlier, some startups were attracting investors and being hailed as disruptors, more recently, fresh funding has been harder to come by.
Still, Landus has the backing of Amol Deshpande, the Co-Founder and former CEO of farm-tech startup Farmers Business Network (FBN) and a former partner at Kleiner Perkins who led the venture capital firm’s early investment in Beyond Meat Inc. He plans to invest an undisclosed amount in Conduit through his family office and serve as an adviser to the new company, Deshpande said in an interview.
“Some growers are extremely comfortable with technology innovation. Others cringe at the thought of something beyond a flip phone,” Landus CEO Matt Carstens said in an interview. from the cooperative’s headquarters in Des Moines. “Our job is to meet them where they are and help them along the journey.”
Landus, which has 5,500 farmer members across the US, will have a stake of 50% or more in Conduit. Selected farmer-owners of the co-op will have a chance to invest initially. There are also discussions with potential institutional investors, Carstens said.