FarmRaise

FarmRaise is an agricultural software company whose platform helps farmers and ranchers access funding programs and manage farm business records. Its original wedge was farm grants: the platform collects granular farm data, structures it, and uses it to apply on customers' behalf to a range of federal and private grant programs, including conservation and low-carbon farming programs. Founders have described the longer-term ambition as a broader financial services offering for farms, including loans, bulk equipment purchasing and tax planning, largely delivered through third parties.

A second product line, FarmRaise Tracks, is a bookkeeping and record-keeping tool for farm operations. It supports linking bank accounts across more than 12,000 financial institutions, logging transactions and mileage (including offline from the field), receipt capture and tagging by IRS Schedule F categories, inventory and asset tracking, invoicing, and generation of income statements, balance sheets and Schedule F output. Subscribers also get access to a farm funding library and funding alerts.

On the enterprise side, FarmRaise sells to cooperatives, government program operators, agribusinesses and supply chains through a product called FarmRaise Passport for grower program administration. Marketed use cases include 45Z tax credit and Scope 3 emissions work, research and field trials, and cost-share and conservation programs, with an emphasis on collecting, validating and reusing farmer information across enrollment, reporting and compliance without on-farm visits.

Founding story

Jayce Hafner and Sami Tellatin met as MBA classmates at Stanford and bonded over the view that helping U.S. farms operate more efficiently was both socially useful and commercially attractive. Hafner grew up on a cattle ranch in Virginia and had experienced firsthand how confusing and time-consuming grant applications were; Tellatin studied biological engineering and spent three years at the USDA researching farm economics. They were joined by third co-founder Albert Abedi, whom they met through Pear VC's accelerator program.

Business model

Two revenue lines are described: a direct subscription for farmers (FarmRaise Premium at $40 per month, or $36 per month billed annually at $432, with discounted pricing offered to new or smaller operations on request), plus a fee equal to 10% of the value of grants secured for customers. The company has also described plans to earn finders' fees by referring farm customers to third-party financial and procurement services. Separately, it sells program-administration software to cooperatives, government operators, agribusinesses and supply chains.

Monthly and annual software subscriptions for farmers, a 10% success fee on the value of grants obtained, anticipated finders' fees from third-party services, and enterprise sales of grower-program administration software.

Traction

By January 2022 the company reported nearly 10,000 farms on the platform and had partnerships with Cargill and Corteva. Its pricing page cites more than 20,000 farmers and a 4.9 out of 5 average rating. Customer references include the Missouri Center for Regenerative Agriculture, which used the platform to enroll farmers in a $25 million project.

Latest developments

FarmRaise Passport is being marketed as live for grower programs, with enterprise use cases spanning 45Z tax credits and Scope 3 emissions, research and field trials, and cost-share and conservation program administration. The company has also announced a partnership with Avalo.