For most farms, input costs are one of the biggest line items on the balance sheet. A Canadian agtech start-up is trying to change how those inputs are bought and sold by building a secure, transparent and convenient digital marketplace for farm inputs.
Why it matters
Fertilizer, seed and crop protection products can make or break margins, especially in years when commodity prices are tight and volatility is high.
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“You need good information to make better deals, which leads to better terms, healthier businesses and less risk,” said Keith Busch, ClearCost founder and its CEO.
Busch grew up in Niagara Region and now lives in rural Saskatchewan where he sees firsthand how farm profitability connects to rural economic health.
“When you add that all up, it derisks farming and as a result, derisks rural communities. I live in one and I want them to be healthy economically and families successful, so I’m on a mission to provide this market the tool it needs to derisk farm business,” he added.
Billed as order tracking like an Uber to your bin yard, ClearCost started with fertilizer because that’s where the problem was most obvious, and it’s one input that affects virtually every farm and every ag retail outlet.
The goal isn’t to disrupt existing relationships, according to Busch.
“The issue is that the market lacks good information, which forces everyone to carry more risk than they should,” he said.
“We built this tool for both farms and dealers to punch above their weight class.”
ClearCost connects buyers and sellers in real time, helping move product — which now includes seed and generic crop protection products — more efficiently through the system. Larger farms can even co-ordinate collective purchases, while retailers can source supply more competitively and pass savings along.
For retailers and suppliers, the platform lowers transaction costs and opens access to customers they might not otherwise reach. It also gives sellers clearer insight into demand.
“Agriculture is one of the last industries without real price transparency,” said Busch.
“Younger farmers understand transparency, and the market is demanding it.”
For farmers, ClearCost provides price discovery, digital contracting, escrow-based trust payments and trackable delivery — all through a mobile app.
To get started, farmers can download the free app from the App Store or Google Play, and then register their business, verify signing authority and pin the location of their storage yards. ClearCost’s logistics software then calculates pricing based on geography and freight.
The platform is already live with paying customers in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, and after a year of user feedback, the team is heading back into engineering mode for several months to improve scalability and performance.
Interest from across Canada, especially Ontario, was a surprise, Busch said.
“I built this in a town of 1,000 people in Saskatchewan,” he added.
“I didn’t expect people across the country to care. But this is a global problem for farms everywhere.”
Farmers outside of the Prairies can already download and register on the app, with full functionality expected in the coming weeks as ClearCost works on rolling out a nation-wide expansion.
ClearCost earns revenue by routing payments through its licensed system, and funds held in escrow earn interest, which ClearCost retains. The company is also preparing to launch premium data subscriptions and exploring low-rate financing options tied directly to input purchases and on-farm storage investments.
The company was a participant in the Saskatchewan-based Cultivator AGTECH ACCELERATOR, and its seed round raised $1.6 million from 18 local Saskatchewan farms when ClearCost was nothing more than an idea.
Next milestones include hiring a sales director, completing a Series A financing round and growing to 5,000 registered farms and 1,000 active traders by year-end.
“If we pull it all off this year, we will have a fully liquid input market with transparency in the palm of your hand — that’s our vision. We want the market to work for everybody that uses it,” he said.
