New Brunswick’s Resson Earns $US 11 Million In Series B Funding
FREDERICTON— New Brunswick-based agriculture technology company Resson has landed one of the largest ever venture capital investments in Atlantic Canada’s history, pulling in US$ 11 million (nearly $14 million in Canadian dollars) in funding.
The company now has the backing of two of the world’s top agriculture companies, McCain Foods Limited and Monsanto. Previous investors in Resson, including Build Ventures, Rho Canada Ventures and the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation (NBIF), have invested in the company’s Series B round.
“It’s very humbling to see where we’ve come, but we’re just getting started,” said Peter Goggin, one of Resson’s founders. “The agriculture sector is a giant industry, there’s so much more we can do.”
Resson’s technology uses big data analytics, drones and swarm robotics to help large and small farms and agricultural service providers increase productivity and profits with predictive analysis for crop management.
Goggin says the company will remain headquartered in Fredericton and will open a new business office in San Jose, California. The company has doubled in size to 23 people over the last year and Goggin expects they will hire as many as 20 more over the next year, most of them in New Brunswick.
“New Brunswick has been an incredible place for us. Unlike the larger city centers, we were able to get a lot of support from the business community. We were able to get CEOS presidents of universities to spend time with us to help us navigate through our early days,” he says.
McCain Foods, the massive potato producer, was an early supporter of the company.
“We have worked with Resson from the earliest days of the company and have seen the tremendous potential to improve our operations by using their predictive analytics technology,” said Dirk Van de Put, President and CEO of McCain Foods Limited, in a statement.
“McCain has deep roots in New Brunswick and we have a long history of partnering with local businesses, including Fiddlehead Technology in Moncton and the non-profit organization Enactus Canada to create social businesses in the region.”
NBIF has invested $558,981 in Resson since 2014. CEO Calvin Milbury says the organization is pleased about Resson’s growth.
“As one of Resson’s first investors, we are excited about what this tremendous investment will do to scale the company here in New Brunswick,” said Milbury. “Even though our first priority is to get startups off the ground, once they’ve got revenues, our growth strategy is to help founders find the venture capital and corporate investments they need to go global.”