West Lafayette, Ind.-based precision agriculture company Solinftec won the award for Deal of the Year during TechPoint’s 24th annual Mira Awards gala honoring the best of tech in Indiana.

WATCH VIDEO: Solinftec Human Resources Manager Jessica Kelley accepts the award for Deal of the year.

Solinftec’s $60 million growth investment round secured in May 2022, will be recognized as the Deal of the Year during TechPoint’s 24th annual Mira Awards gala this Saturday. The investment, which was led by Lightsmith Group in New York, is enabling Solinftec to expand availability of its digital-ag operating system in North and South America  

Solinftec, one of the world’s largest independent precision agriculture companies, invested $50 million in 2019 to establish its US headquarters at Purdue Research Park. The company makes and sells a digital agricultural platform designed to improve outcomes and reduce environmental impact. 

The $60 million growth round that won Solinftec the Deal of the Year award was led by Lightsmith Group with participation from existing investors Unbox Capital, Circularis Partners and several undisclosed investors.

In announcing the investment, Lightsmith Group Managing Director Sanjay Wagle said his team was excited to partner with Solinftec and to help it become “the operating system for intelligent, sustainable, and resilient farming.”  

“As climate change and other disruptions continue to put pressure on agricultural productivity and food costs, we need to scale solutions that can help farmers increase productivity per acre while reducing input usage and increasing their responsiveness to changing climate and weather conditions,” he said.  

Mitch Frazier, President and CEO of AgriNovus, said innovation like that from Solinftec will increasingly play an outsized role in helping farmers to run efficiently, sustainably and profitably. 

“Innovation in equipment and technology are unlocking new capabilities for farmers to profitably and sustainably meet the growing demand for food around the world,” Frazier said. “Advances in autonomy, precision application and machine learning hold tremendous promise for shaping the next chapter of the global agbioscience economy.” 

See All Award Winners from the 2023 Mira Awards Gala.

TechPoint, the nonprofit, industry-led growth initiative for Indiana’s digital innovation economy, honored the state’s top successes and innovations during the 24th annual Mira Awards gala with presenting sponsors UKG, Salesforce and the Indiana Economic Development Corporation.

A total of 18 award winners and honorees were chosen from the 141 outstanding people, companies and products that were selected as nominees for their achievements during the 2022 calendar year.

Fifty-two independent, volunteer judges spent more than 850 total hours evaluating applications, interviewing nominees, and selecting this year’s winners. Judges included an impressive roster of company founders, CEOs and presidents, CTOs, CIOs, engineers and other industry professionals.

TechPoint’s Mira Awards are named after the first of the brilliant variable stars to be discovered—the Mira Star. It is also the Latin root meaning “worthy of admiration, wonderful, marvelous.” The awards represent the best of tech in Indiana each year.