Indigo Agriculture

Indigo Agriculture is a Boston, Massachusetts-based agricultural technology company that works with plant microbes, aiming to improve yields of cotton, wheat, corn, soybeans, and rice. The company also offers crop storage and other logistics programs for farmers.
David Perry, who had led the company since 2014, was replaced by Ron Hovsepian in September 2020. Perry is also leaving the company’s board.
History and funding.
In 2014, Indigo was founded as Symbiota by Noubar Afeyan and Geoffrey von Maltzahn; led by CEO David Perry. In February 2016, the company rebranded as Indigo Agriculture. The company has raised over $300 million in venture capital funding, with help from investors Flagship Pioneering, the Alaska Permanent Fund, Baillie Gifford, the Investment Corporation of Dubai, and Activant Capital. Indigo’s Series D in 2016 was noted to be the largest private equity financing in the agricultural technology sector.
In September 2017, the company raised USD$156 million, giving it a total valuation of USD$1.4 billion and making it a "unicorn", the term given to start-ups worth more than USD$1 billion.
Products and services.
Indigo's seed treatments contain microbes that live within plant tissue, unlike existing microbial seed treatments that contain microbes that live around the roots. The first product, Indigo Cotton, a seed treatment containing bacteria isolated from cotton plants that is intended to improve yields under drought conditions was launched in July 2016. By 2018 the company has also launched similar seed treatments to improve drought resistance in wheat, corn, soybeans, rice, and barley. During 2016, the company released commercial data about its various products targeting cotton, wheat, and corn.
In the United States, Indigo contracts with growers to purchase their crops at a premium and resell them to buyers, and assists with logistics. In 2017, the first year this model was implemented, Indigo contracted approximately half a million acres in cotton, wheat, corn, soy, and rice.