The Climate Corp., a subsidiary of Monsanto Co., announced Nov. 21 the acquisition of VitalFields, a European farm management software company based in Tallinn, Estonia. The VitalFields team will join Climate Corp. to strengthen the company’s efforts to deliver industry-leading digital technologies to farmers around the world.

Founded in 2011 and available in seven European countries, VitalFields offers an easy-to-use tool for farmers to plan, manage and analyze their field activities, including simplified tracking and reporting of all crop inputs to help ensure compliance with European Union environmental standards.

In less than two growing seasons, Climate FieldView has quickly become the most broadly connected platform in the industry. Source: The Climate Corporation

“At Climate, our vision is to deliver one centralized digital agriculture platform to provide farmers with the tools they need to optimize their operations,” said Mike Stern, Climate Corp. chief executive officer. “VitalFields has built a successful business spanning multiple European countries, and we see how their digital tools will complement our Climate FieldView platform offerings in the future. This acquisition marks Climate’s first step into the European market, and we’re looking forward to working with VitalFields to grow and enhance their current tools to help farmers maximize their return on every hectare.”

VitalFields’ tools will continue to be sold in Europe. Climate Corp. plans to expand the VitalFields user base to help European farmers uncover valuable field insights and use field data to improve productivity.

“We share The Climate Corp.’s vision of providing one connected digital ag platform for farmers across the globe,” said Martin Rand, VitalFields CEO and co-founder. “We look forward to the opportunity to expand the availability of the tools we’ve developed to help more farmers across Europe broaden their experience of the value digital tools can provide toward greater efficiency and sustainability.”

Prior to the acquisition, Monsanto Growth Ventures (MGV), the venture capital arm of Monsanto, saw promise in the developing company and was an early investor in VitalFields, incorporating it into the MGV portfolio that includes a wide range of independent companies active in key areas of agricultural productivity.

Officially launched in 2015, the Climate FieldView platform is now on more than 95 million acres across the U.S. and Brazil, with more than 100,000 U.S. farmers engaging in Climate’s digital tools. In less than two growing seasons, Climate FieldView has quickly become the most broadly connected platform in the industry and has continued to expand into global regions, including recent expansion into Canada and Brazil.

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The VitalFields team will continue operating in Europe.