BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) has signed an agreement to acquire ZedX, Inc. (Bellefonte, Pa.; www.zedxinc.com), a leader in the development of digital agricultural intelligence. The acquisition is expected to be completed within four weeks.
ZedX’s expertise lies in the development of agronomic weather, crop, and pest models that can rapidly translate data into insights for more efficient agricultural production. With the planned acquisition, BASF strengthens its digital farming footprint and further invests in helping growers take advantage of the increasing amount of big data generated in farming and beyond.
“BASF is playing an active role in the digital transformation of agriculture. We are constantly evaluating how digital solutions can help our customers,” says Jürgen Huff, senior vice president, Global Strategic Marketing of BASF’s Crop Protection division. “ZedX’s experts impressed us with their extensive and deep know-how in agronomic models. We are very pleased to incorporate their knowledge into our offers to serve farmers’ needs through innovative products and services.”
In a time when digital transformation is changing business approaches BASF aims to ensure that agronomic insights and recommendations from digital solutions help its customers to make better, more informed decisions.
As Keith Wheeler, CEO of ZedX, explains, “We see ourselves as the ones connecting the dots. We develop innovative products and solutions for our customers by finding the shortest path between data, analytics, knowledge management, and decision-making.” ZedX was founded in 1987 and has built a data platform offering agronomic models, visualization tools, and tailored analytical solutions.
BASF’s planned acquisition of ZedX builds upon a strong established relationship between the companies. Joe Russo, ZedX’s founder and president, points out that during a three-year collaboration the partnership has already shown great results. “Our modeling expertise coupled with BASF’s knowledge of chemistry has truly benefited growers and agriculture. For example, we developed a model that, based on important weather and environmental conditions, identifies the right window of application for a BASF herbicide.”
Weather conditions, soil temperature, wind speed — all of these factors can influence the performance of crop protection products. By acquiring ZedX, BASF will be able to help farmers use their resources more efficiently and sustainably. Also, it will further complement BASF’s online platform offer Maglis launched in 2016.
“The smart use of digital solutions can open up all sectors of the economy to many new opportunities, and farming is no exception. ZedX is a great fit to our growth plan. We will strengthen our sales by offering targeted advice, insights and recommendations and by interacting more closely with our customers,” concludes Huff.