CoFounder Podcast No 2: Martin Rand on VitalFields journey

By Tarmo Virki | Vital Fields | February 26, 2018

In CoFounder Podcast No 2 Indrek Põldvee sat down with Martin Rand, founder of Monsanto-owned agricultural startup Vital Fields.

In November 2016, The Climate Corporation, a subsidiary of Monsanto Company, announced the acquisition of VitalFields, a European farm management software company based in Tallinn, Estonia. “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,” it described the acquisition target then.

VitalFields’ tools will continue to be sold in Europe. Climate 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 Corporation’s vision of providing one connected digital ag platform for farmers across the globe,” Martin Rand, chief executive officer and co-founder for VitalFields, said then in s statement. “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 this acquisition, Monsanto Growth Ventures (MGV), the venture capital arm of Monsanto Company, 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.

WeatherMe OÜ, which does business as VitalFields, is a digital agriculture company that offers an easy-to-use farm management system 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. Founded in 2011 and based in Tallinn, Estonia, VitalFields is available in seven European countries: Austria, Estonia, Germany, Poland, Romania, Switzerland and Ukraine.