Agriculture IoT platform Farmnote raises a further $4.6m
Farmnote Holdings has secured additional funding of JPY500m ($4.6m). The internet of things software provider to the dairy and livestock industries will use the money to enhance its cloud-based cattle management system and develop and market its wearable device, which collects real-time data on livestock status. It will also expand deployment of ICT in livestock and agricultural platforms and enhance its business infrastructure. The funding comes from the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations, the Innovation Network Corporation of Japan, Sumitomo Corporation and the Norinchukin Bank. The new investment brings Farmnote's funding to date to JPY1.1bn.
HOKKAIDO, Japan, April 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Farmnote Holdings, Inc. (hereinafter, "Farmnote"), an IoT solution provider for dairy and livestock farming, has procured a total of 500 million yen in funding from four companies – Innovation Network Corporation of Japan, the National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations (hereinafter, "ZEN-NOH"), the Norinchukin Bank and Sumitomo Corporation – in order to strengthen its business, bringing the overall total of funding procured to 1.1 billion yen.

Farmnote has endeavored to expand sales and to enhance the functions of its pre-existing "Farmnote" cloud-based cattle management system, and develop and market its "Farmnote Color"; wearable device which collects real-time data of cattle activities. Sales have grown by nearly 30 times over the past three years, with the number of users rising to 1,600 farms for a contracted number of 160,000 heads of cattle.

Farmnote will be using this latest procurement of funds to pursue greater investment in R&D and to enhance its business infrastructure. This should help improving the productivity and competitiveness of domestic agriculture, inclusive of dairy and livestock farming.

Purposes of fund procurement

1. Global deployment of ICT for livestock and agricultural IT platforms through collaboration with Sumitomo Corporation

Sumitomo Corporation will take on the responsibility of extending "Farmnote" and "Farmnote Color" overseas. Farmnote will utilize Sumitomo Corporation's extensive overseas network to deploy Japan's highly competitive dairy and livestock cattle management systems to the rest of the world and thereby contribute to the global livestock industry. Farmnote will also look beyond dairy and livestock farming in working with Sumitomo Corporation to develop a platform for tillage that can extend agricultural ICT fostered in Japan globally.

2. Nationwide deployment of ICT for livestock through collaboration with ZEN-NOH and NTT DOCOMO

ZEN-NOH and Farmnote have concluded a capital/business tie-up for joint development and dissemination of system platforms and sensor devices to improve the incomes of farm producers through the use of ICT. A business partnership was also concluded recently with NTT DOCOMO, which will assist the efforts of ZEN-NOH and Farmnote by promoting sales.

3. Further R&D on AI and IoT applications in agriculture

Farmnote will be further promoting Farmnote Lab, its existing organization for researching AI and IoT applications in agriculture, extending "Farmnote Connect" (an integrated API for agricultural data) already in use at Farmnote to the wider agricultural sector beyond cattle, and constructing an integrated platform to optimize agriculture.

SOURCE Sumitomo Corporation; Farmnote