Valmont Industries, Inc. (NYSE: VMI), a leading global provider of engineered products and services for infrastructure and irrigation equipment and services for agriculture, announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement to purchase Prospera Technologies Inc. (“Prospera”), a leading privately-held Israeli AI company focused on machine learning and cognitive computing in agriculture. The transaction, believed to be worth around $300 million, is set to be finalized in the second quarter of 2021.

Since 2019, Valmont and Prospera have effectively combined AI technology with center pivot irrigation to provide real-time crop analysis and anomaly detection solutions, leading to widespread adoption and increased grower returns.

The alliance has increased its intelligent solutions by leveraging Prospera’s unique technology, monitoring five million acres in 2020 to an initial forecast of one million, with twice as many growers using the service as in 2019. In 2021, grower adoption will double at a faster pace soon.

Our goal to make the farm more efficient and productive while substantially boosting sustainability is reflected in today’s acquisition. “Building on our successful partnership with Prospera, we’re stepping up our commitment to provide services that improve the lives of our customers and the communities in which they operate, as well as finding new ways to achieve higher crop yields while using less – land, water, chemicals, fertilizers, fuel, and time,” said Valmont President and CEO, David Valmont.          

“In the last two years, the brand has offered its differentiated grower offering and increased the distribution of AI technologies in irrigated areas to boost technology-based sales growth for coming years and helped in the effective positioning of the company,” Kaniewski stated. We’re looking forward to welcoming the Prospera team to Valmont and working together to commercialize technologies for growers with unique in-season capabilities, all while making a beneficial impact on the environment and increasing long-term shareholder value.”                     

Prospera Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Daniel Koppel commented, “Our strategic alliance has proved the unique combined value of Prospera’s skills and Valmont’s agriculture knowledge and market leadership.” “The fastest approach to boost effective ag-tech solutions is through this combination. We’re looking forward to the future and the opportunity to continue our efforts to feed the world’s growing population by using machine learning technology that helps producers make more educated, efficient, and scientific decisions.”