Dive Brief:
- Monsanto's The Climate Corp. has acquired Chicago-based 640 Labs. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
- 640 Labs, founded by two former Motorola execs, uses mobile technology to help farmers capture and use crop data.
- The purchase is the latest in a series of big data acquisitions by Monsanto, as the agribusiness giant best known as a seed company looks to become the leader in agricultural data tech.
Dive Insight:
Monsanto is moving fast in big data. It was only in October 2013 that the St. Louis-based company spent $1 billion to purchase The Climate Corp., which collects ag-related weather data, from the ex-Google employees who founded it. At that time it seemed clear that American agriculture was changing forever, and that data-filled computers would soon replace someone who knows the land and sky like he or she knows the back of his or her hand. And as we said then, we shall miss him or her when he or she's gone.