Indigo Launches Water Efficiency Product for Cotton

Indigo, a Boston-based company dedicated to harnessing nature to help farmers sustainably feed the planet, has launched its first commercial product – Indigo Cotton – which helps improve the plant’s water use efficiency.

The company utilizes beneficial microbes within plant tissue to help optimize crop health and improve productivity. To date, Indigo has tested these microbes on more than a dozen different crops across three continents in four growing seasons. According to Indigo reports, the company’s cotton trials have consistently shown 10% or greater yield increases under targeted stress conditions, including water scarcity.

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The Indigo Cotton product has been planted on more than 50,000 acres in five states this year.

“Indigo’s unique approach to discovery and product development brings potentially game changing technologies to market in years instead of decades,” said Tyler McClendon of Oxbow Agriculture, who planted more than 1000 acres of Indigo Cotton. “Indigo’s pricing model to only charge when there is a measurable increase in crop yield makes the decision to use Indigo’s products across a large percent of Oxbow’s farming businesses an easy decision, because there is potential for a crop yield increase with little downside. This adds up to Indigo being very good for both the farmer and the environment.”

As Indigo rolled out its cotton product, the company also announced that it had closed a $100 million Series C investment – the largest private equity financing in the agriculture technology sector. These funds will be used to expand ongoing research and development efforts, extent Indigo’s team, and to scale commercial operations in preparation for the launch of the company’s second product offering – Indigo Wheat – later this year.

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“While early, we believe our approach has the potential to fundamentally change agriculture for the better,” said David Perry, CEO of Indigo. “We are committed to partnering with growers to develop this innovation to benefit both their business and their land.”

The company recently moved to a 65,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility in Charlestown, MA, that includes research labs and the world’s largest Conviron grow room. The facility will house Indigo’s rapidly growing team, which is expected to double this year.

 

Source – Indigo

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