Farmers Edge disputes merits of claim made by former investors

Digital agronomy firm Farmers Edge disputes the merits of claims made by former investors who are seeking a class action suit against the company. 

“We believe the claim referenced in your email does not have merit and we are defending against it,” said Laura Workman, general counsel and corporate secretary with Farmers Edge in an emailed statement.

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“It’s business as usual at Farmers Edge.”

Former investors in Manitoba-based ag tech firm Farmers Edge have asked the B.C. Supreme Court to certify a class action lawsuit against the company, former leaders and its main shareholder.

Vancouver resident Willson Leung and Ottawa resident Philippe Golin, both identified as former shareholders in Farmers Edge, filed the suit on February 22.

Farmers Edge is a digital agronomy firm that offers services such as variable rate nutrition management and FarmCommand, a data management and analytics platform.

Farmers Edge, founder and former CEO Wade Barnes, former chief financial officer David Patrick, Fairfax Financial Holdings and several financial underwriters are named in the suit asking for a combined total of $270 million in damages.

“Defendants misrepresented material facts about the Company’s business. The Plaintiffs bring this action on behalf of FE securityholders who suffered losses as a result of these misrepresentations in the primary and secondary market for FE securities,” says the statement of claim.

None of the allegations have been proven in court. No statements of defense have been filed.

The statement of claim says the company was heavily indebted via debentures owed to Fairfax, its major shareholder, and was unable to secure additional capital at the time it launched its initial public offering in March 2021.

It also alleges that it overstated the number of partnerships and the nature of the relationships it had with companies that it said would assist in marketing or promoting the company’s products to farmers.

It further alleges that Farmers Edge misrepresented its income from farmer subscriptions to its products.

Barnes declined to comment on the statement of claim. David Patrick and Fairfax Financial have not responded to requests.

In its IPO, Farmers Edge sold nearly 7.4 million shares at $17 per share for total gross proceeds of about $125 million, according to a company news release.

On the day the company went public in March 2021, Barnes told media the company would use the new funding — totalling a little over $125 million — to build on its vision of digital farming.

“We’ll be scaling up our teams to grow the business,” he said. “We’ll also be developing new products.”

However, share prices dropped steadily and the company was beset by financial woes. Barnes left the company in early 2022. In August 2023, it announced it was laying off 20 per cent of its workforce and consolidating operations in North America.

At the beginning of 2024, Farmers Edge inked a deal with Fairfax to sell all common shares for 35 cents apiece — at the time, Fairfax owned 61 per cent of the company’s shares — and to take the company private again.