A young entrepreneur from Iowa, Steven Brockshus is expanding the company he founded in 2016 while a student at Iowa State University. It was called Terva back then. Today it is FarmlandFinder, based in Des Moines.

FarmlandFinder​ is a digital tool set for people interested in buying and selling land. Brockshus recently raised a $3 million Series Seed funding round to allow him to add staff, provide more services and grow the company. ​Cultivian Sandbox​ led the fundraising round with participation from Iowa Farm Bureau’s ​Rural Vitality Fund​ and ​Next Level Ventures​.

“FarmlandFinder offers simple, easy-to-use market intelligence and data management online tools to farmland professionals, including landowners, brokers, appraisers, ag lenders and land investment firms,” he says. “This digital suite of tools gives farmland professionals access to the most complete and up-to-date farmland market data in the Midwest, as well as analytical tools to help make informed decisions and operate more efficiently.”

Assisting buyers and sellers

Each year $56 billion of farmland exchanges ownership in the U.S., and most of this is done entirely off line with very little access to data or real-time information. “We’re increasing transparency in a traditionally opaque industry, which helps to level the playing field and drive efficiency,” Brockshus says. 

STEVEN BROCKSHUS: “Through a data-rich platform, we’re able to help buyers, sellers and land professionals make informed decisions in a fraction of the time.”

Brockshus is no stranger to agriculture, having grown up on a fifth-generation family farm in northwest Iowa and later serving as a national FFA officer. The seed for FarmlandFinder was planted when he attended a farmland auction with his father and saw firsthand how little information was available.

Brockshus remembers what he learned that day: “Buying or selling a farm is one of the biggest decisions a landowner makes, and they have very little access to real-time information to help them make an informed choice. At FarmlandFinder, we are leveraging technology to give the landowner more power when making that decision.”

Managing information

FarmlandFinder will use the new funding to expand its team to help more landowners, ag lenders and land investment firms leverage data to grow their business. The company’s data-driven approach in a data-poor industry is just one of the things that has attracted top ag tech investors to get involved.

“With its extensive database of farmland real estate and user-friendly software tools, FarmlandFinder is pioneering the digitization and transparency of the farmland real estate market, and we’re excited to be their partner on this journey,” says Amanda Donohue-Hansen, vice president at Cultivian Sandbox, a venture capital firm.

FarmlandFinder makes it easy to gain farmland market intelligence and manage data, Brockshus says. “Using our digital tools, landowners and farmland professionals can quickly find information to help make decisions when buying, selling or analyzing land. FarmlandFinder is on a mission to make land sales simple, instant and online.”

 For more information, visit farmlandfinder.com.