Our guest for the August Sydney Agtech Meetup was Dan Harburg. Dan is a Senior Director of Systems Innovation at Indigo Ag, one of agtech’s biggest startups. Born in Boston, Indigo Ag has raised over $650 million and employ over 1,000 staff. They are now expanding internationally, making their way into the European, Australian and South American markets.
Originally from a tech background and an engineer by training, Dan was bitten by the ag bug while working in robotics. After a stint as a VC, Dan been focused on how to harness emerging technologies to improve agriculture. Dan was visiting Australia from Boston, Massachusetts to attend the National Carbon Farming Conference and we were lucky enough to steal him for a Friday night at the Meetup to chat about the IndigoAg journey and their recently launched Terraton Initiative that’s making waves across the agtech industry.
Check out this episode to hear:
What IndigoAg does to achieve their missing of ‘helping farmers harness nature to sustainably feed the planet’
The evolutions of the IndigoAg business model, from selling a microbial seed coating, to marketing grain, to developing on-farm storage and freight and logistics offerings.
Just how fast IndigoAg is growing, and the challenges that a startup faces during rapid expansion
What IndigoAg is doing to help growers benefit, and whether this is (or isn’t) working in Australian agriculture
The Terraton Initiative, including what it is, why growers have already pledged 3 million acres, and how agtech startups can get involved
Dan’s view on the shift that farmers are making from focusing on driving yield, to optimizing profits
You can check out Dan Harburg on Twitter and LinkedIn and IndigoAg on Twitter.
Thank you to SproutX who sponsor the meetup and to Grow Love Project for producing this episode.