Datamars, the global RFID and livestock management solutions company and Connecterra, a leader in data and AI technology have announced a strategic partnership. Through its investment, Datamars has acquired the sensor business of Connecterra known as ‘Ida for Farmers’ and will also hold a majority share in the Connecterra company.

Connecterra will remain independent and focused on further development of its Enterprise platform. The investment leverages each company’s strengths to further accelerate the industry’s transition into more sustainable dairy farming by supporting producers globally who are facing increasing pressures to produce more, with less impact.

Connecterra was co-founded by CEO Yasir Khokhar and Saad Ansari in 2015. The company’s data platform powers two applications that empower customers across the value chain to make decisions that facilitate more efficient, productive and ultimately sustainable dairy operations. Today its farmer-facing solution, Ida for Farmers, is sold in 18 countries. The farm advisor or consultant app, Enterprise, is in use with farmers and advisors globally.

Datamars CEO, Daniele Della Libera, says he is excited about the new partnership and bringing Connecterra’s Ida for Farmers technology into the Datamars Livestock ecosystem.

“Yasir and the team at Connecterra have done a fantastic job of creating and establishing the Ida platform, which has some very exciting and unique user features that showcase their world leading AI capability and user experience,” he says.

“The unique aspects of Ida, when brought together as part of Datamars Livestock’s own Tru-Test livestock monitoring, performance and farm management offering will give us the potential to deliver a collectively superior offering to dairy farmers, while ensuring Ida customers retain the features they use and appreciate today. An offering that brings the best of what we have together in a way that genuinely arms farmers with insights to help them make better informed decisions to improve productivity in a sustainable way.”

Connecterra CEO Yasir Khokhar says he is equally excited for the Ida for Farmers product, its customers and supporting team to be joining the global Datamars community.

The investment also gives Khokhar and his team the opportunity to accelerate development of Connecterra’s Enterprise platform and enable a wider industry footprint by bringing together data across the value chain and unlocking insights and data driven new innovations.

“Our focus is advancing the capabilities of our data platform. The market is telling us clearly that there is the need for a digital platform that provides high quality data and insights to enable farmers and enterprises to collaborate digitally.

“Strengthening these capabilities translates into more accurate, actionable insights, which empowers better decision making and collaboration for farmers and their advisors. The more robust data set can also support industry leaders in their digital transformation and sustainability efforts. Together with our partnership with Datamars, we will be able to scale up rapidly. It’s truly an exciting time for the company and the industry,” he explains.

While the partnership brings new opportunities for accelerated development, Della Libera says there is no immediate change to Ida for existing farmer customers in this market who will continue to be supported by the Ida for Farmers team who are joining Datamars.

“Datamars is committed to investing in maintaining and improving the overall value these solutions bring for farmers. Alongside the value that will come from utilising our global scale and operational footprint to optimise customer delivery, there are a number of future opportunities for farmers that will come from us leveraging our combined technologies, skills and knowledge,” he explains.

“Datamars Livestock’s unique value proposition is in bringing data from a number of different sensors, such as weigh scales, into the same platform. The ability to capture animal weight right alongside heat and health monitoring markers creates a completely unique offering that can deliver better, or new, insights for farmers that they can take action around.”

Datamars has a number of different sensors already operating across the farm operation Della Libera adds which, combined and now with the inclusion of Ida technology, can deliver another level of insight. “This is the aspiration for Datamars Livestock and where the value of our partnership can make a real and positive difference to dairy farmers.”

Connecterra’s investment round was facilitated by Rabobank’s Equity Private Placements team and closed in late January 2023. Pymwymic, the Dutch impact investment cooperative, continues to hold its stake in the company along with other shareholders such as Cibus Capital, Breed Reply and Hypred Group.

ENDS

About Datamars: Founded over 30 years ago and headquartered in Lugano, Switzerland, Datamars’ growth has been built on research and development-based innovation. Datamars’ vision is to be world leaders in the harnessing of data to measurably improve productivity and quality of life. The company delivers integrated product solutions in livestock management and animal health delivery with a core focus on accelerating the sustainability of livestock production globally.

The Datamars Livestock ecosystem covers the breadth of farm infrastructure, animal identification, weight and activity based individual animal performance systems, animal health delivery systems, and easy-to-understand intelligence with the Datamars Livestock cloud solution. The company also has successful global presence in pet identification and reunification and textile identification.

Datamars currently employs around 2000 people globally.

The company has R&D hubs in three locations, production facilities in six locations and sales and marketing hubs in over 24 locations worldwide. They have a network of 4000 distributors and end customers in more than 100 countries.

Datamars’ legacy is in RFID and hardware technology and the company has a growing software-based solutions footprint, enabling connected, end to end offerings. Other successfully acquired companies now within the Datamars portfolio include Temple Tag, Zee Tag, Felixcan, Simcro, Tru-Test, Serket and HerdInsights.

Learn more about Datamars Livestock and their ecosystem for smarter farming at https://livestock.datamars.com/

Learn more about the Datamars company at https://datamars.com/

About Connecterra: Connecterra is on a mission to empower the dairy industry to increase productivity while reducing the impact on the planet. Founded in 2015, we believe making data accessible and actionable for stakeholders across the value chain is key to making a transition to more sustainable farming.

Our solution is the Enterprise platform. The platform is powered by real-time farm data and currently features a set of core capabilities and high value insights. Each capability and insight can be combined or used independently to create solutions for farmers, their advisors and industry partners. Platform insights and collaborative tools are delivered through the easy-to-use Enterprise app, which is available in your language on mobile, tablet or desktop.

Connecterra is headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands with local teams in Europe, the United States and New Zealand. The Enterprise platform is powering solutions in 16 countries, and we have partnerships with dairy industry leaders around the globe.

Learn more about Connecterra at https://www.connecterra.io.

If you require additional information, please contact:

Teresa Steele-Rika teresa.steele-rika@datamars.com or

Jenn Gbur jenng@connecterra.io