John Raines joins Sabanto to help accelerate growth in agricultural automation.
Sabanto, a company specializing in autonomous tractor retrofit technology, has appointed John M. Raines to its Board of Directors following the successful completion of an oversubscribed Series B funding round. The investment was led by Leaps by Bayer and included participation from several agricultural and technology-focused investors.
The new funding will help Sabanto expand its mission of making autonomous farming technology more accessible through brand-independent retrofit systems that allow farmers to upgrade equipment they already own.
The company plans to use the capital to increase manufacturing capacity, expand deployment efforts, grow its engineering and commercial teams, and further develop its proprietary software platforms.
"Agtech is littered with innovative technology that never became a great business. Building the technology is only half the battle. The hard part is getting it into farmers' hands and scaling it. John has actually done that at a level very few people in this industry have. That's why I'm excited to welcome him to our Board," said Craig Rupp, Founder and CEO of Sabanto.
Raines brings more than 30 years of experience in agriculture, technology, and business leadership. Most recently, he served as President of TELUS Digital Agriculture & Consumer Goods, leading efforts to apply cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and machine learning across agricultural markets in more than 50 countries.
Raines also previously served as Chief Commercial Officer at The Climate Corporation, where he helped grow the widely used Climate FieldView digital agriculture platform, and held several leadership positions at Monsanto.
In addition to his industry experience, Raines currently serves on the boards of FMC Corporation, Sydenstricker Nobbe Partners, TPNB Bank, and the University of Missouri Board of Curators.
"I'm excited about the benefits autonomous technology can deliver to farmers. Between the shortage in labor and the cost of production on farms today, autonomy provides a whole new avenue to drive productivity and return on invested capital," said Raines.
The appointment strengthens Sabanto's leadership team as it works to expand autonomous farming solutions that help producers improve efficiency, address labor challenges, and reduce operating costs.
Photo Credit: sabanto