Valmont to Acquire Prospera Technologies, Global Leader in Agricultural Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning - Seite 2

Combining Capabilities to Accelerate Industry Leadership

• Unique, Disruptive and Differentiated Value Proposition: The transaction will create the largest global, vertically-integrated AI company in agriculture, immediately providing a highly differentiated in-season solution. Using the pivot as the digital data hub, this solution brings demonstrated, advanced agronomy and unprecedented visibility to the field, enabling the grower to take immediate action to remediate issues. Leveraging Prospera’s technology and Valmont’s global reach and omnipresence on the field, the combination will create the first commercially available subscription model of its kind, providing innovative and disruptive solutions to help growers lower costs, increase yields, use less land and save time.
  
  
• Catalyst for Growth: Strengthens and expands total addressable market by pursuing opportunities beyond traditional, pivot-based irrigated acres. Accelerates technology adoption with growers and provides a less-cyclical sales contribution delivered through recurring revenue from subscription-based data analytics and insights.
  
  
• Entrepreneurial Spirit and Key Talent Additions: Adds world-class talent across technology, data science and agronomy, including Prospera’s senior leadership team and 90 colleagues, all of whom will continue with the business post-close. With senior leadership headquartered in Austin, TX, one of the nation’s rapidly-growing tech hubs, and an R&D center located in Tel Aviv, Israel, an international ML and CV center, Prospera is well-positioned to expand its unique pool of talent, continuing growth and innovation with the same entrepreneurial spirit that has led to its success.

Founded in 2014 and backed by strategic investors including Bessemer, Qualcomm, Cisco, More and Tekfen, Prospera has recently been listed among the World Economic Forum Technology Pioneers and CB Insights Top 100 AI Companies, Frost & Sullivan New Product Innovation and Fast Company World Changing Ideas, and has received the AgFunder Innovation Award.

Transaction Terms and Financing

Valmont will invest approximately $300 million to fully acquire Prospera and the transaction will be financed through a combination of funds from available cash and the Company’s revolving credit facility. Restricted stock retention awards will be granted to Prospera employees.

The transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close in the second quarter of 2021 and will be reported within Valmont’s Irrigation segment. Further details will be communicated at Valmont’s Virtual Investor Day on May 20, 2021.