Valmont Industries, a provider of engineered products and services for infrastructure and irrigation equipment and services for agriculture, has planned to acquire Israeli-based AI company Prospera Technologies
The transaction, valued at approximately US$300mn, is expected to close in the second quarter of 2021.
Since 2019, Valmont and Prospera have successfully integrated AI technologies with centre pivot irrigation to develop real-time crop analysis and anomaly detection solutions, resulting in strong adoption and greater returns for the grower. Leveraging Prospera’s unique technology, the partnership has expanded its intelligent solutions, monitoring five million acres in 2020 against an original estimate of one million, with twice as many growers using the service as compared to 2019. Grower adoption is expected to double in 2021 with greater acceleration in the near term.
“Today’s acquisition is a testament to our commitment to make the farm more efficient and increase productivity while dramatically improving sustainability. Building on the successful partnership with Prospera, we are accelerating our commitment to provide services that enhance the lives of our customers and the communities in which they operate, as well as finding new ways to achieve higher crop yields using less – land, water, chemicals, fertilisers, fuel and time,” said Valmont president and CEO Stephen G. Kaniewski.
Kaniewski continued, “Over the past two years we have delivered a widely-adopted, differentiated grower offering and significantly accelerated the deployment of AI technologies on irrigated acres, positioning us well for strong, highly-accretive growth of technology sales over the next several years. We are excited to welcome the Prospera team to Valmont and collaborate to commercialise the technology for growers with unique in-season capabilities, while having a positive impact on our planet and enhancing long-term stakeholder value.”
“Our strategic partnership has demonstrated the unique combined value of Prospera’s capabilities and Valmont’s agricultural expertise and market leadership,” said Prospera co-founder and CEO Daniel Koppel. “This combination is the fastest way to scale impactful ag-tech solutions. We are excited about the future and the opportunity to continue to further our work to feed an expanding global population through our machine learning technologies that allow growers to make more informed, efficient and scientific decisions.”
