Bushel acquires GrainBridge

Bushel has announced it acquired GrainBridge. Launched in 2019, the solution is a joint venture between ADM and Cargill that brought together digital tools to help farmers consolidate information on production economics and grain marketing into a single platform. The data expertise of the GrainBridge team will further strengthen the end-to-end capabilities of the Bushel platform, enabling its customers to better serve farmers. ADM and Cargill will work with their customers to transition them over to the Bushel platform.

"Innovation is one of the pillars of ADM's strategy, and we're committed to continually improving and expanding digital technology to help support the producers who grow our food," says Doug Roose, vice president producer marketing, ADM. "In 2019, we were proud to announce GrainBridge. We're excited to take the next step: Bringing GrainBridge and Bushel together will give farmers a path to new features and functionality, including existing staples like the ability to see local cash bids and account information. This is a win for producers, and it's a win for our industry, as we continue to innovate and improve to strengthen the entire food and ag value chain."

Bushel says the acquisition complements its strategic focus to lead the ag industry into the digital age with strategies that solve real pain points and provide value for all stakeholders along the value chain. The permission-based data sharing and visualization will improve data-based decision-making, supporting everyone from grower to grain origination to consumer packaged goods (CPG).

Three ways the acquisition will provide value include:

• Increased grower profitability. Bushel's data insights capabilities will help educate grain buyers and sellers about forecasted trends and best practices related to grain marketing.
• Increased visibility for food processors sourcing for specific traits such as higher protein or oil content within their customer base.
• Verification to support sustainability credits and corporate targets for CPG companies through a "grain passport."

"ADM and Cargill came together with GrainBridge to better understand the digital grain marketing landscape. This next step of bringing GrainBridge together with Bushel will provide better outcomes for farmers by improving their grain marketing and selling practices," says Jeff Klock, global digital strategy leader, Cargill. "We look forward to continuing to engage with Bushel to continue our journey to understand and serve the market not just for today, but for the future."'

Because both Bushel and GrainBridge collaborate with a number of different partners throughout the grain supply chain, this acquisition will maintain the standard of permission-based control when sharing data. Growers and grain buying facilities will retain control over when and how their data will be shared. The partners who the grower and the grain facility choose to do business with are integrated directly into the software, so the information is readily accessible and does not require manual data entry.

"The collaboration of the grain industry behind Bushel will lead to faster standardization, which leads to faster innovation. As an industry, it is more efficient to be working together and collaborating on resources to improve the North American grain trade," says Jake Joraanstad, CEO of Bushel. "Adding the GrainBridge team members to Bushel gives us stronger data science capabilities to provide even better insights from our expanded network."

GrainBridge will remain headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska.

In June 2021, Bushel acquired FarmLogs. By bringing the capabilities of FarmLogs to Bushel's platform, Joraanstad says it elevated the digital relationship across the grain supply chain. "We're two independent companies committed to being agnostic of specific agribusiness products and services that may impact how we can best support the food supply chain with secure, permissioned data transparency and future stewardship and fintech offerings," he says.