ST PAUL, MINN. and BLOOMINGTON, ILL. May 21, 2024 - Cooperative Ventures has announced an investment in Traction Ag, Inc., a leader in farm accounting technology and developer of the first cloud-based accounting software delivering solutions to farmers across the United States. A joint venture between two leading farmer-owned cooperatives, CHS and GROWMARK, Cooperative Ventures focuses on developing mutually beneficial commercial relationships between startups and cooperative partners. Traction Ag’s $10 million Series A round was led by Cooperative Ventures and joined by Plymouth Growth and existing investors.

Traction Ag provides farmers and ranchers with the functionality and data they need to make critical decisions on the farm. The company’s cloud-based accounting software, coupled with robust data integrations, equips farmers with meaningful insights that can improve farm profitability through better decision-making. The company has experienced success through organic growth, strategic investments and partnerships over the past year. Recently, the company acquired and integrated solutions from Granular and Conservis. These acquisitions are accelerating the build-out of premium and enterprise features within the Traction Ag platform. 

“From the very beginning, our priority at Traction Ag has been to deliver value to farmers and give them peace of mind when making decisions,” said Traction Ag CEO Dustin Sapp. “This round of funding will enable us to scale faster, reaching even more farmers with our decision-making solutions that drive real value at the farm gate.” Traction is currently focused on enhancing its business platforms, increasing service offerings and building partnerships in the agriculture industry.

Traction Ag fits in Cooperative Ventures’ farm business enablement focus area. This sector includes tools and technologies, which help farmers manage their complex business operations. “Traction Ag is a compelling investment for Cooperative Ventures,” said Heather Thompson, director of innovation at GROWMARK. “We believe the company has a strong foundation to build upon. Also, the company’s mission to empower financial decision-making and operational profitability is very closely aligned with the missions of both CHS and GROWMARK, making it a natural fit for Cooperative Ventures to support.” 

The investment from Cooperative Ventures and Plymouth Growth is a testament to the strength of Traction’s readiness to scale and track record of strong growth. “Traction Ag and its existing investors have built a deep and proven team and a board of directors with strong commitment to and experience in the agriculture sector,” said Plymouth Growth Partner Brook Critchfield. “Plymouth Growth is thrilled to bring more than 20 years of experience in growing category-leading software companies alongside the industry leadership of CHS and GROWMARK in order to help drive Traction’s next phase of growth.”

Through this relationship, Traction can create valuable connections within the vast network of CHS and GROWMARK farmer-owners and customers. “Together with GROWMARK, we believe this investment will equip our owners and customers with essential tools for their businesses,” said Ben Van Straten, CHS innovation director. “Cooperative Ventures was created to focus on innovative solutions and emerging technologies that positively impact agriculture and we believe that Traction has the ability to do just that.” 

About Traction Ag: Traction Ag is the only farm accounting and management solution uniquely built for the cloud, integrating actual accounting numbers with field operations. Helping farmers thrive is the company’s purpose, and Traction Ag delivers by providing real-time financial analysis for timely, informed decision-making. Offering an extensive suite of farm-specific accounting capabilities, the software features crop and input inventory balances, cost of production, field-level profitability and reporting. The company is majority employee- and farmer-owned, and leverages integrations with Climate FieldView™ and John Deere Operations Center to automate the collection of field activities. More information is available at Tractionag.com. 

About Cooperative Ventures: Cooperative Ventures is a venture capital fund founded in late 2021 as a joint venture between CHS and GROWMARK, two of the largest farmer-owned agricultural supply cooperatives in North America. The fund focuses on innovative solutions and emerging technologies that positively impact farming. In addition to providing capital, Cooperative Ventures is committed to developing mutually beneficial commercial relationships between startups and is comprised of teams based out of Bloomington, Illinois, and St. Paul, Minnesota with management assistance from Touchdown Ventures. More information is available at CooperativeVenturesLLC.com.

About Plymouth Growth: Plymouth Growth invests in mid-continent B2B software and technology companies – with proven business models, rapid growth, and strong teams – that are ready to scale. The Plymouth team brings decades of experience as operators, advisors, and investors, and understands that while metrics matter, it's people that are critical to growth. Based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and actively investing out of its fifth fund, Plymouth Growth helps teams achieve smart, proven, growth.

About GROWMARK: GROWMARK is an agricultural cooperative serving almost 400,000 customers across North America, providing agronomy, energy, facility engineering and construction, and logistics products and services, as well as grain marketing and risk management services. Headquartered in Bloomington, Illinois, GROWMARK owns the FS trademark, which is used by its member cooperatives. More information is available at Growmark.com.  

About CHS:  CHS Inc. is a leading global agribusiness owned by farmers, ranchers and cooperatives across the United States. Diversified in energy, agronomy, grains and foods, CHS is committed to creating connections to empower agriculture, helping its farmer-owners, customers and other stakeholders grow their businesses through its domestic and global operations. CHS supplies energy, crop nutrients, seed, crop protection products, grain marketing services, production and agricultural services, animal nutrition products, foods and food ingredients, and risk management services. The company operates petroleum refineries and pipelines and manufactures, markets and distributes Cenex® brand refined fuels, lubricants, propane and renewable energy products.