The TerrAvion Collapse: A Warning to Other Investor-Supported Ag-Tech Companies?

By CropLife

Even with how lightning quick many events have occurred during the strange year that has been 2020, the rapid-fire demise of ag technology company TerrAvion was still surprising, writes Eric Sfiligoj at CropLife. And could this signal potential trouble for other agricultural start-ups with heavy Wall Street-type investment profiles?

For those unfamiliar, TerrAvion has been one of the darlings of the precision agriculture/technology sector for several years. Founder/CEO Robert Morris helped the company provide grower-customers with field imagery data to better manage their crops. Over the company’s eight-year lifespan, it drew many millions of dollars from investors outside of agriculture looking to “cash in” on technology innovation. And by many accounts, TerrAvion was one of the market leaders in imagery data management.

Then, late in the day on Friday, September 4, word began to spread in the industry that the Hayward, CA-based company had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In this filing, the company listed some $25 million in liabilities vs. “far less” in assets.

Now, many companies ultimately recover from Chapter 11 filings. However, it oftentimes takes several years to do so as creditors and new financial terms are hashed out in the courts.