Land O’Lakes, Inc. recently unveiled its strategic launch of AgRogue Growth Partners, an ambitious initiative designed to harness the inherent strengths of the cooperative model. This project aims to fast-track the discovery, investment and adoption of breakthrough technologies to benefit farmers, their businesses and their communities.
“We are taking a very deliberate approach to the topic of venture capital,” says Jason Trusley, chief strategy officer at Land O’ Lakes. Trusley is leveraging his “outside in” strategy leaning on his experiences at Nike, Columbia and Nordstrom and now applying it to his work with the Land O’ Lakes team.
AgRogue includes an investment of up to $7 million in each of 10 to 15 companies focused on innovations in categories spanning:
- crop inputs
- ag data
- supply chain processes
- business models
The first participants should be selected by the end of October.
“Our market access through the 800+ retailer partners, and putting skin in the game to help scale these investments is quite different than what we’ve seen in growth equity. We want to invest at the point of inflection, and we believe our system can help find the momentum and then rapidly scale,” Trusley says.
Brett Bruggeman, chief operating officer and executive vice president of ag business at Land O’Lakes, highlights Ag Rogue Growth Parnters is “co-authored” with some of its retail partners.
“Our retail partners are half investors,” Bruggeman says. “The idea was sourced from our CEO council, the largest retailers in our system, two years ago. Right now, we have six retail partners engaged, but more can come on.”
Current retail partners in AgRogue include:
- Alabama Farmers Cooperative (Alabama)
- Central Valley Ag (Nebraska)
- Farmers Cooperative – Dorchester (Nebraska)
- Farmward Cooperative (Minnesota)
- GreenPoint Ag (Alabama)
- Keystone Cooperative (Indiana)
“AgRogue Growth Partners represents an exciting new chapter in agricultural innovation, driven by a commitment to farmer success. By uniting our strengths, we will focus on creating new opportunities for farmers to thrive, providing them with the new tools and resources they need to overcome industry challenges and grow a more reliable, abundant food supply,” Kevin Still, president and CEO of Keystone Cooperative, said in a company press release.
AgRogue Growth Partners will have another partner in Radicle Growth, who will manage the program and vet the startups.
Trusley says there are four themes AgRogue will address:
- optimize farm income
- improve grain quality/find premium markets
- resiliency and soil health
- help grow the retail business through systems, innovations and partnerships
“We are seeking pre-market innovation. And for example, Cooperative Ventures (CHS and Growmark’s initiative) could be potential partners as we transition closer to the growth curve,” Trusley says. “Cooperation is important to drive change in agriculture, and cooperation is especially complex with cooperatives. We are trying to create more diversification and greater scale to the funding to solve the broader set of issues for farmers.”
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