GREENSBORO, N.C. — Syngenta, the Switzerland-based pesticide and seed company whose North American crop protection company is based in Greensboro, announced that it has acquired all assets of The Cropio Group, an agriculture tech company centered in Eastern Europe.
The Cropio Group, which was founded in 2014 and now has about 35 full-time employees, has a presence in more than 50 countries, but is focused primarily on Eastern Europe. Cropio will remain a standalone company, owned by Syngenta. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Cropio provides farm management software, with about 10 million hectares of crops currently under management. The software provides imaging, record-keeping and equipment tracking functions.
“This acquisition marks a turning point in Syngenta’s digital strategy for agriculture," said Greg Meyers, Syngenta's chief information and digital officer. "Cropio is a leading player in the Eastern European digital agriculture market, and Syngenta is gaining a hub for Ag Tech innovation in Europe that will help increase farmer sustainability, productivity, efficiency and profitability. We anticipate significant opportunities for collaboration across the other Syngenta digital assets.”
Dan Burdett, the head of global digital agriculture for Syngenta, said Cropio offers “tremendous value to growers.”
“They have focused on the breadth of grower processes, while enabling data flow across field equipment and multiple digital tools. Cropio’s platform allows the farmer to monitor all their crops and field operations in order to maximize decision-making.”
Syngenta said in announcing the acquisition that the deal will make it the only ag company with access to leading management platforms in the globe’s top four agriculture markets. That includes the U.S. through Land.db, Brazil with Strider, China with the Modern Agricultural Platform and Eastern Europe through Cropio.
Syngenta said that combined, those digital management programs will span 40 million hectares, with plans to double that number by the end of 2020.
Syngenta is one of the world’s largest ag companies, employing 28,000 across 90 countries. Syngenta Crop Protection’s Greensboro headquarters sits on 68-acres off I-40 along Swing Road and maintains more than 700 full-time employees, many of whom hold doctorates or other top-tier qualification. According to Syngenta, North American sales for fiscal year 2018 came in $3.5 billion. Global sales in that span reached $13.5 billion.
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