AcreShield developing an innovative AI solution to solve the Yield Gap problem

The AI-based seed selection program provides farmers with accurate yield predictions for crop protection through smarter seed selection

AcreShield, the developer of Yield Optimizer™, completed its Series A funding of more than $2.5 million. Yield Optimizer is the first commercially accepted proven artificial intelligence (AI) seed selection program for yield prediction that uses independent seed performance data and provides farmers with guaranteed ROI performance. The board of directors authorized Series A for an additional $2 million.

Kaylee Williams, investment director of InnoVenture Iowa, a co-investment fund that supports world-changing technologies created in Iowa said “We saw the potential for this AI technology to disrupt a billion-dollar market in a key industry – agriculture. Every row crop farmer faces the Yield Gap problem. AcreShield brings a truly innovative solution to solve the Yield Gap and, by doing so, is creating a 180-million-acre opportunity in the U.S. alone. This is something the industry has never seen before.”

Scott Stewart is president of Vertical Ventures Inc., which invests in companies leveraging technologies such as generative AI and machine learning. He said, “AcreShield fits the firm’s investment thesis as its proprietary seed trial data and model give farmers the ability for a smarter seed selection.” It also caught his team’s attention, as seed selection is paramount to a successful farming operation.

Stewart added, “We chose to become the lead investor in AcreShield Series A funding for three main reasons. First, AcreShield’s AI Ag Tech platform is up and running with a distributor network in place and with paying customers. It has demonstrated revenue success and is on track for rapid growth. Second, because of its smarter seed selection model and the proprietary data set used, they can offer farmers a performance guarantee. We haven’t seen anything like this before in the AI market. Lastly, investors always have a foundational requirement in any investment – the team. The AcreShield team has proven to be consistently successful. The entire package complements our AI investment portfolio.”

Billy Rose, AcreShield CEO, concurred, saying, “The Yield Gap is a serious farmer challenge, which is why we created and built AcreShield to solve this billion-dollar opportunity with AI-powered smarter seed selection for greater yields. We do this by managing our own independent seed trials, which provide unbiased data sets that feed our AI Yield Optimizer. The net result is that farmers have better yield and financial performance, which is so needed with today's low commodity prices. We’re solving a large farmer problem – the 'Yield Gap,' by demystifying smarter seed selection with financial protection.”