Introducing Croft, our newest addition to the Ag Startup Engine portfolio. Croft's online Agribusiness Workforce Platform helps farms tackle challenges around seasonal labor, worker productivity, and farm operations optimization. By digitizing workforce data and core processes, Croft aims to save farms and their back-office business partners significant time and money.
The journey began when Purdue University’s new digital innovation in agribusiness fund (DIAL Ventures) identified labor as one of the biggest problems for agribusinesses. Recognizing the need for a comprehensive yet affordable solution, Croft’s founding team of CEO Scott Prince and CTO Travis Douce dove deep into understanding the intricacies, costs, and inefficiencies of farm labor management, including the essential foreign seasonal H-2A visa program, which is a complex framework with an array of qualification and compliance activities, steps, and workflows.
Scott Prince states, “H-2A growers just want to grow - and their limited staff doesn’t have the time to do thousands of labor management activities throughout the year - nor can they become HR, labor, and compliance experts to make sure everything is completed correctly. Growers, their H-2A agents, and their domestic and H-2A workers all need help and Croft makes sure everything is handled easily and collaboratively in one secure online place.”
Ultimately, Croft empowers growers with strategic data-based labor insights never before realized. By utilizing business intelligence, the platform will help farmers achieve optimal worker productivity & success - that could include hiring fewer workers to achieve better production outcomes. Scott shares, “The cost of labor, labor management, and labor compliance has soared, and our focus is to help growers regain control with new advantages that can help increase their profitability. Streamlining labor administration by 50% or more, boosting efficiency, increasing productivity, and lowering risks & liabilities really moves their needle”.
The Croft team sought out strategic venture partner Ag Startup Engine. According to Scott, “Beyond providing essential investment, Ag Startup Engine brought expertise and valuable introductions to other investors and customer prospects through their strategic national Ag network.”
Brad Fruth, Director of Innovation with Beck’s Hybrids, a sponsor of Ag Startup Engine, and Croft customer shares, “We are very excited about Croft. Farm labor management for domestic and H-2A workers, auditing, and reporting are essential processes for
growers but are often managed in slow, inefficient, manual, expensive, and risky ways. Croft was smart to identify this market as ripe for digital disruption - and we have confidence that Croft can make a big difference.”
Ag Startup Engine is thrilled to have Croft on board. Executive Director Joel Harris adds “We heard about Croft through the Ag Startup Engine network - and were interested in helping find digital solutions for the ag labor market’s biggest challenges. We took notice when our advisors told us how important Croft is to their production business. Scott's previous startup and growth stage company experience is impressive - and Travis has built product teams that have created market-leading platforms. We are very excited to help lead the wave of digital innovation in agriculture with Croft!”
To learn more about Croft, visit www.withcroft.com.