Grain Discovery, an Ontario-based company that creates software to digitize parts of the grain supply chain, has been acquired by DTN, a large agriculture commodities information company.
Why it matters: Grain Discovery will now be able to scale its products due to its acquisition by DTN, a larger, global company.
Based in Picton, Ont., Grain Discovery has built software tools across the grain trading system since it was founded in 2018.
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The company has helped end-users of grains trace the grain they’ve purchased back to its origins, and grain elevators manage their commodities.
The deal with DTN, which closed July 25, was the logical next step for Grain Discovery, says CEO Rory O’Sullivan.
He says DTN has long provided services to grain elevators and others in the grain supply chain, but its technology hasn’t kept pace. That’s where a newer, quickly moving company like Grain Discovery comes in.
“Our software is replacing all their legacy tech on their grain origination portal, their websites, and obviously the traceability stuff,” says O’Sullivan.
The deal doesn’t change much for Grain Discovery’s staff, who continue to work as they have, just now for DTN. Grain Discovery is part of a new DTN Canada entity.
O’Sullivan worked for years, like many startup companies, to find enough money to continue to grow the organization.
He says a purchase by a larger company was the most likely end result for Grain Discovery. The company survived COVID and the dramatic decline in venture capital funding, especially for agriculture, since 2022.
“We had to really, really scale. And it just takes so long. And so DTN was a kind of rocket ship, because obviously they’ve been around for 30 years, and they got a trusted name, both in software, but obviously for their newsroom as well,” says O’Sullivan.
Grain Discovery will help improve DTN’s ability to deliver services across its offerings.
“Grain buyers and producers need to have immediate access to each other in order to make real-time decisions whether they’re at their desk, in a truck, or standing in a field,” says Grey Montgomery, DTN general manager for agriculture.
“Grain Discovery accelerates our time to market for multiple DTN ag solutions, including the MyDTN app, AgHost, and Grain Portal and our sustainability solutions.”
O’Sullivan and his co-founders, Ruairi Hanafin and Peter Vincent, were working at the Canadian Pension Plan, and decided there was opportunity in building a system for greater transparency and traceability in the grain system. Hanafin and Vincent stepped away from day-to-day operations at Grain Discovery a couple of years ago, but have remained investors.
Grain Discovery was formed when blockchain — the ability of computer networks to provide better data and transaction security through the use of connected processing power — was the hot technology.
The company works with partners in the grain sector to develop traceability systems for specialty commodities like identity preserved soybeans.
A project announced this summer with Protein Industries Canada, Canadian soybean company Sevita and Inarix, an AI company, will create an AI soybean grading tool that will give farmers and buyers more and quicker information about soybean quality.
Being based in Ontario has been an advantage, says O’Sullivan.
“From a grain perspective, it’s like a microcosm of the wider kind of North American market obviously, with the commodities, but also there are a lot of independent Mom and Pop, like elevators, and they were still the bulk of our clients,” he says.
There are also numerous programs which provide startup funding, without giving up an ownership stake, such as from government, which has helped the company’s growth.
Access to programmers and technology talent was also an advantage of being in Ontario, O’Sullivan says.
