Annual Awards Program Recognizes Innovation in Agricultural and Food Technologies Around the Globe
FARGO, N.D., August 21, 2024 – Bushel, the leading digital platform connecting farmers and agribusinesses, today announced it has been awarded “AgTech Finance Platform of the Year ” in the fifth annual AgTech Breakthrough Awards program conducted by AgTech Breakthrough, a leading market intelligence organization that recognizes the top companies, technologies and products in the global agricultural and food technology markets today.
Finance in agriculture is known to still rely on outdated technology to transfer money – the paper check. The U.S. Postal Service has repeatedly advised against mailing checks due to security concerns, advocating for secure digital methods instead. Trends in agriculture are moving to more secure forms of payment, including digital wallets. The 2024 Bushel State of the Farm Report highlights that the use of paper checks to pay for crop inputs has fallen by 17% over the last year, yet paper checks still represent 65% of business transactions.
Bushel continues to focus on creating more opportunities for simpler money movement transactions through technology development and partnerships with its digital payments product, Bushel WalletTM*. Agribusinesses can get paid for ag retail purchases quickly, farmers can get paid for their grain the same day, and additional workforce such as truckers can get paid upon delivery.
This technology offers farmers a simpler way to access their lines of credit, increasing their purchasing power. The streamlined process provides clear visibility into loan terms, including available credit, accrued interest, and maturity dates. Borrowers can draw funds and make repayments directly, while ag lenders benefit from reduced manual work and fewer errors by eliminating the need to process paper payments. This shift not only speeds up loan payments but also reduces the number of inquiries about loan details, allowing staff to focus on more critical tasks.
The first lender to partner with Bushel is Compeer Financial, the third largest cooperative in the Farm Credit System, a nationwide network of lending organizations supporting agriculture and rural communities with reliable and consistent credit and financial services.
“To have a scale of anything, you need to have infrastructure. Bushel’s working with the same businesses our clients are working with day in and day out: grain elevators, input suppliers, manufacturers, and others. And that’s the infrastructure we trade in day in and day out as a lender and our clients are trading with day in and day out. That intersection was the right kind of partnership for us to look at. It’s providing an underlying conduit for business to take place very seamlessly and effortlessly,” said Terry Hinds, Chief New Markets & Assurance Officer at Compeer Financial.
Another key partnership for Bushel is its integration with GROWERS, aimed at enhancing the financial ecosystem for ag retailers and farmers through digital solutions that streamline business processes. This integration enables efficient digital payments, providing a seamless purchasing experience and facilitating smoother transactions across the retail landscape.
“This year, our focus has been on creating more opportunities for simpler money movement transactions through technology development and partnerships. What started with digitizing scale tickets, has grown to be something more and we’ll continue to deliver software that helps agribusinesses operate smoothly,” said Jake Joraanstad, Bushel CEO. “We’re excited to accept this award from AgTech Breakthrough and believe it solidifies our mission to connect the agriculture industry through digital infrastructure. We’ll keep building solutions that solve real problems in the agriculture sector.”
The mission of the annual AgTech Breakthrough Awards program is to conduct the industry’s most comprehensive analysis and evaluation of agricultural and food technology categories, including Internet-of-Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) based agricultural technologies, farm management, indoor farming, food quality, data analytics and many more. This year’s program attracted thousands of nominations from over 15 different countries throughout the world.
“Bushel is creating a more connected and efficient financial ecosystem in agriculture. Trends in agriculture are finally moving to more secure forms of payment, including digital wallets,” said Bryan Vaughn, Managing Director, AgTech Breakthrough. “We’re pleased to recognize Bushel’s technology with the ‘AgTech Finance Platform of the Year’ award. Their digital tools streamline lending and purchasing processes, enhance data-driven decision-making, and ensure secure, seamless financial transactions that ultimately benefit farmers and agribusinesses.”
About Bushel
Bushel is an independent software company based in Fargo, N.D. that provides an integrated workflow solution for agriculture. Bushel’s platform includes customer relationship management, customer and commercial portals, digital payments, offer and hedge management, and farm management and advisement software. These solutions improve operational efficiency, deliver crucial insights, and increase flexibility, enabling grain buyers, processors, ag retailers, ag lenders and farmers to adapt and expand their operations. Bushel now powers more than 3,500 grain and ag retail facilities, representing more than 50% of U.S. and Canadian grain origination. Over 100,000 farmers use Bushel’s technology, making it one of the largest technology networks in U.S. agribusiness. Bushel also meets SOC 2 Type II standards, ensuring robust data security.
* Funds in Bushel Wallet accounts are held by Evolve Bank & Trust, member FDIC.
About AgTech Breakthrough
Part of Tech Breakthrough, a leading market intelligence and recognition platform for global technology innovation and leadership, the AgTech Breakthrough Awards program is devoted to honoring excellence in agricultural & food technologies, services, companies and products around the world. The AgTech Breakthrough Awards program provides a forum for public recognition around the achievements of AgTech companies and solutions in categories including farm management, indoor farming, IoT and robotics, FoodTech, analytics and more. For more information visit AgTechBreakthrough.com.
Tech Breakthrough LLC does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in our recognition programs, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with award designations. Tech Breakthrough LLC recognition consists of the opinions of the Tech Breakthrough LLC organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Tech Breakthrough LLC disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this recognition program, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose
