CropX Adds Industry Veteran as President; Gets Strategic Funding Infusion

Company Prepares for Rapid Expansion to Give Farmers Accurate Predictive Power Based on Soil Analytics

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Aug 21, 2019, 09:29 ET

SAN FRANCISCO and TEL AVIV, Israel, Aug. 21, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- In-soil ag analytics innovator CropX today officially welcomed John Vikupitz, a proven industry leader, to its executive team as president. Vikupitz will drive the company's global expansion with a focus on accelerating market adoption of the first farm management platform to integrate invaluable in-soil data insights at scale.

CropX adds Industry Veteran, John Vikupitz, as President

"CropX provides unrivalled insight based on in-soil data and is setting the standard for technologies that are simple and scalable so farmers can make an immediate, substantial impact on their bottom line," said Vikupitz. "I look forward to my new leadership role as part of the CropX team to change how growers around the globe access and use intelligence from below the ground to cultivate more sustainable, productive and profitable farming enterprises. My efforts will also focus on nurturing strategic relationships with firms offering growers complimentary technologies."

Vikupitz brings a tremendous amount of agtech experience to his new leadership role at CropX. For the last 10 years, he served as president and CEO of Netafim USA, the largest subsidiary of theglobal leader in precision irrigation solutions. While at Netafim, he substantially grew the business, developed an industry-pioneering recycled plastics solution and managed a team of over 300 employees. During his two-decade tenure with the drip irrigation pioneer, Vikupitz held a variety of sales and marketing leadership roles including director of marketing. Earlier in his career, he served as a sales manager and facility manager for SPX Valve & Controls. He earned his agricultural engineering degree at California State Polytechnic University-Pomona and has continued his education in strategic management and leadership with courses from Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania.

The company also announced it has closed $10 million in funding to support the company's continued growth. New investors including strategic partner Sumitomo Corporation Europe, Armada Investments and TaL Capital joined existing investors such as Finistere Ventures, Germin8 Ventures, GreenSoil Investments, Innovation Endeavors and OurCrowd. With the funding, CropX aims to amplify its research and development efforts and significantly speed penetration of its disruptive analytics platform throughout a broad cross-section of grower environments.

CropX will continue to expand its revolutionary farm management platform, which is already installed around the globe on the fields of top farms, as well as irrigation, seed and fertilizer companies. Built on a critical (and historically difficult) data element, soil, CropX provides the scalable soil sensing layer needed to help farmers' manage and accurately predict crop needs from irrigation to fertilization and more. CropX integrates the full spectrum of available farm data insights – satellite, weather, crop modeling, topographical data, etc. – with its unmatched soil intelligence to deliver accurate predictive power at scale.

"A precise understanding of what is happening within the soil is critical for crop health and farm profitability, and we combine that soil intelligence with other key data points to deliver easily actionable insights for the farmer," noted CropX CEO Tomer Tzach. "We look forward to tapping the expertise of John Vikupitz, our investors and new strategic partners as we drive the modernization of in-soil insights like satellite imagery transformed above-soil insights in years past."

CropX is also backed by the venture arms of manufacturing leaders including ICL, Lab IX (the Flex technology accelerator), and Robert Bosch Venture Capital GmbH (RBVC).

About CropX

CropX gives farmers an unmatched connection to their soil and all of the above- and below-ground forces that could change if and how crops can thrive in their fields. Offering advanced soil sensor technology and cloud-based Ag analytics that integrates with top irrigation systems, CropX helps farmers increase crop yield and reduce water, fertilization and energy costs. Its affordable, easy-to-use soil sensors and data platform let farmers know if/when specific parts of a field need to be watered or fertilized and how much is needed - all in an easy mobile app. Learn more at www.cropX.com.