Farmo
Farmo is a Japanese agricultural IoT manufacturer that designs LPWA-connected sensors, valves, and cloud services for rice paddy water management, greenhouse monitoring, weather sensing, and livestock barns, selling primarily through one-time hardware purchases to farmers, cooperatives, and local governments in Japan.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2005
- HeadquartersUtsunomiya, Japan
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingHardware or Manufacturing
What Farmo does
Farmo is a Japanese agricultural IoT manufacturer headquartered in Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture, that designs, builds, and sells low-power connected hardware and cloud services for farmers, agricultural cooperatives, land improvement districts, and local governments. Founded in 2005 as a web services company, Farmo pivoted to agricultural IT in 2016 after developing its first greenhouse monitoring product for a local strawberry farmer, and rebranded under the Farmo name in March 2021. The company holds the No. 1 domestic market share in paddy field water management IoT sensors in Japan.
Farmo's product portfolio centers on water management and environmental monitoring, including ultrasonic water level sensors, remote-controlled water supply gates and valves, a patented Aqua Drive water gate remote control device, greenhouse monitoring systems (House Farmo), multi-parameter weather sensors, livestock barn monitors, and field cameras. All devices connect via Farmo's proprietary nationwide LPWA (Low Power Wide Area) base station network, which eliminates per-device communication fees and is a key differentiator. The company monetizes primarily through one-time hardware purchases (¥27,500–¥77,000 per device) bundled with a free cloud platform, and is expanding into recurring services through a 2025 partnership with Faeger for J-Credit carbon credit certification.
The business is distributed through direct sales, three consolidated regional sales offices in Japan, partnerships with major agricultural machinery OEMs (Kubota, Yanmar, Iseki), the JA cooperative network, cable TV infrastructure partners, and government engagements (e.g., Hanamaki City smart agriculture model). Cumulative sales exceeded 30,000 IoT devices as of March 2025, with a stated target of 100,000 units by October 2029. The company is privately held with 27 employees, founder-led under Representative Director Nagai Hiroshi, and is funded by strategic investors including AgriBusiness Investment Development rather than institutional venture capital.
Farmo firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Farmo
- Legal name
- 株式会社farmo
- Website
- https://farmo.co.jp
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2005
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Farmo is a Japanese agricultural IoT manufacturer that designs LPWA-connected sensors, valves, and cloud services for rice paddy water management, greenhouse monitoring, weather sensing, and livestock barns, selling primarily through one-time hardware purchases to farmers, cooperatives, and local governments in Japan.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Farmo industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Smart Agriculture IoT
- NAICS
- Farm Machinery and Equipment Manufacturing (333111), Water Supply and Irrigation Systems (22131)
- SIC
- Farm Machinery & Equipment (3523), Industrial Instruments For Measurement, Display, And Control (3823)
- akta.pro primary industry
- IoT Farm Sensors & Edge Devices (Soil, Weather, Crop, Water) (AFAAAFAC)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Precision Sensing & Monitoring (Soil/Weather Stations, In-Field Sensors, IoT) (AFAGALAB), Irrigation Control & Automation (Controllers, Valves, Sensors, IoT) (AFAAACAF), Irrigation Monitoring & Sensors (Flow/Pressure Meters, Soil Moisture, Water Quality Sensors) (AFABAHAJ)
Keywords
Where Farmo is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Utsunomiya
- HQ country
- Japan
- HQ region
- Asia
Offices9 records
Markets served
Farmo business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Hardware or Manufacturing
Revenue model
- IoT Hardware Sales: Sale of IoT sensors, monitors, and control devices including water level sensors, water supply valves, weather sensors, and Aqua Drive systems. One-time hardware purchase model with no monthly fees.
- Cloud Services: Free cloud platform access included with hardware purchases. Data storage, monitoring, and control applications provided at no additional cost.
- Carbon Credit Integration Services: Joint services with Faeger for carbon credit (J-Credit) applications using agricultural IoT data for sustainable farming verification.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| One time/ perpetual license | Pay-as-you-go | Water Level Sensor - ¥27,500 (tax included) |
| One time/ perpetual license | Pay-as-you-go | Water Supply Gate - ¥77,000 (tax included) |
| One time/ perpetual license | Pay-as-you-go | Water Supply Valve - ¥66,000 (tax included) |
| One time/ perpetual license | Pay-as-you-go | Aqua Monitor - Starting from ¥60,000 (excluding tax) |
| Freemium | Monthly | App and Cloud Service - Free |
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels6 records
Marketing channels7 records
Farmo product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Farmo designs, manufactures, and sells agricultural IoT hardware including water level sensors, water supply valves and gates, weather sensors, greenhouse monitors, and remote water gate control devices. The products connect via Farmo's proprietary LPWA communication network and are managed through a free cloud platform and smartphone applications, enabling remote monitoring and control of paddy fields, greenhouses, agricultural reservoirs, and livestock facilities.
Product overview
Farmo (株式会社farmo) is an IoT manufacturer specializing in agricultural technology, offering a modular portfolio of IoT hardware products, cloud services, and proprietary LPWA communication infrastructure. The product line centers on water management (水田ファermo water level sensors, 給水ゲート/給水バルブ supply gates/valves, アクアドライブ remote gate control, アクアモニター water level monitoring) and environmental monitoring (ハウスファーモ greenhouse monitoring, ウェザーファーモ weather sensors, 畜産ファーモ livestock monitoring, フィールドショット field cameras). All devices connect via Farmo's proprietary LPWA network, with data accessible through dedicated smartphone apps and cloud platforms at no monthly fee. The company also develops cloud services for agricultural data sharing and disaster prevention.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Quantifiable outcome
- 50%+ reduction in water management labor
- +3 more outcomes
Companies that use Farmo
Customer profileNamed customers6 records
Segments6 records
Farmo technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration3 records
Feature6 records
Farmo partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and moderate.
- Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (株式会社村田製作所)coreJoint research partnership combining Murata's soil sensing technology with Farmo's House Farmo G-type monitoring system for strawberry cultivation optimization. Field trial conducted with Tochigi Prefectural Agricultural Research Center Strawberry Research Institute.
- Tochigi Prefectural Agricultural Research Center Strawberry Research Institute (栃木県農業総合研究センターいちご研究所)coreThree-way joint research project for strawberry quality improvement using IoT soil sensors. Research facility is Japan's leading strawberry R&D center having developed 'Nyuhou', 'Tochiotome', and 'Tochiaka' varieties.
- Faeger Co., Ltd. (株式会社フェイガー)coreStrategic partnership for agricultural carbon credit creation. Jointly developed model combining Farmo's water management IoT data with Faeger's J-Credit application expertise. Enables simplified carbon credit certification through daily water management data. First practical application achieved at Omoigawa Nishi Land Improvement District with Tochigi's first group green certification.
- Hanamaki City, Iwate PrefecturecoreFirst 'Smart Agriculture Hanamaki Model' municipality partnership for deploying Farmo agricultural IoT communication infrastructure across entire city. City covers nearly all agricultural areas with communication network. Pilot includes water sensors, weather sensors, and water supply valves.
- Omoigawa Nishi Land Improvement District (思川西部土地改良区)moderatePilot partner for water management and decarbonization model. First land improvement district in Tochigi Prefecture to achieve group green certification through the Farmo-Faeger partnership.
- New Media Co., Ltd. (ニューメディア)moderateCable TV partnership enabling IoT deployment in areas without mobile coverage. Farmo Alliance member providing rural connectivity solutions using cable TV infrastructure. Joint project with Yamagata University for forest water level monitoring.
Scale indicators7 records
Recent moves7 records
Expansion highlights7 records
Farmo competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- CropX: CropX sells soil and irrigation sensor hardware with cloud analytics for precision agriculture. It is directly comparable to Farmo's Water Farmo / Aqua Monitor soil-water IoT and farm-management cloud offering, though CropX operates globally whereas Farmo is Japan-only.
- Semios: Semios provides in-field IoT sensors (weather, soil, frost, pest) with a cloud platform for specialty crops and orchards. Overlaps with Farmo's House Farmo, Weather Farmo, and Livestock Farmo product lines in deploying multi-parameter field sensors and analytics for agriculture.
- Taranis: Taranis combines field sensors, aerial imagery, and AI-driven agronomy insights for precision agriculture. Comparable to Farmo in serving agribusiness and growers with sensor data + cloud analytics, though Taranis leans more on imagery than Farmo's water-management focus.
- xFarm Technologies: xFarm offers a farm management platform with IoT sensor integrations (weather, soil, irrigation) for European farmers. Directly comparable to Farmo's end-to-end IoT-and-cloud model for water and crop management.
- Pessl Instruments (METOS): Pessl's METOS brand manufactures IoT weather stations, soil moisture sensors, and field cameras for agriculture, distributed globally. Closely comparable to Farmo's Weather Farmo and Aqua Monitor hardware and the underlying LPWA-style telemetry-to-cloud architecture.
Broad incumbents
- Climate FieldView (Bayer): Bayer's Climate FieldView is a broad farm-data platform with sensor integrations across large-acreage row crops. Overlaps with Farmo's cloud-services offering but as part of Bayer's much larger agronomic-inputs and digital-farming portfolio.
- John Deere Operations Center: John Deere's Operations Center / Smart Agriculture platform aggregates machine and field data and increasingly supports third-party IoT sensors. Comparable to Farmo as a competitor / potential partner for connected farm data, though Deere's scale and machinery focus are vastly broader.
- Kubota (KSAS Smart Agri System): Kubota's KSAS platform bundles IoT data with farm machinery for Japanese rice and field-crop growers. Both a current distribution partner of Farmo and a potential competitor, since Kubota could integrate comparable IoT functionality into its own smart-agriculture stack.
Emerging players
- DJI Agriculture: DJI's Agras line brings drone-based sensing and spraying to precision agriculture, partly overlapping with Farmo's field-monitoring use cases. Different primary modality (aerial) but competing for the same smart-agriculture budget at the farm gate.
- SeeTree: SeeTree deploys in-field IoT sensors and AI for per-tree/per-crop intelligence in orchards and plantations. Comparable to Farmo's specialty-crop / greenhouse monitoring offerings (House Farmo) but focused on tree crops rather than rice paddies.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Farmo social profiles
Digital presenceFarmo financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Farmo leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Farmo funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds1 record
Investors1 record
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Farmo M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Farmo
What does Farmo do?
Farmo designs, manufactures, and sells agricultural IoT hardware including water level sensors, water supply valves and gates, weather sensors, greenhouse monitors, and remote water gate control devices. The products connect via Farmo's proprietary LPWA communication network and are managed through a free cloud platform and smartphone applications, enabling remote monitoring and control of paddy fields, greenhouses, agricultural reservoirs, and livestock facilities.
Is Farmo a public or private company?
Farmo is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Farmo founded?
Farmo was founded in 2005. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Farmo based?
Farmo is headquartered in Utsunomiya, Japan, in the Asia region.
How does Farmo make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. IoT Hardware Sales are the primary driver. The others are cloud Services and carbon Credit Integration Services.
Who are Farmo's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are CropX, Semios, Taranis, xFarm Technologies and Pessl Instruments (METOS). Broad incumbents are Climate FieldView (Bayer), John Deere Operations Center and Kubota (KSAS Smart Agri System). Emerging players are DJI Agriculture and SeeTree.
Does Farmo have an API?
No public API is recorded for Farmo.
What industry is Farmo in?
Farmo's product category is Smart Agriculture IoT. Its primary akta.pro industry code is AFAAAFAC, IoT Farm Sensors & Edge Devices (Soil, Weather, Crop, Water), with a secondary code of AFAGALAB, Precision Sensing & Monitoring (Soil/Weather Stations, In-Field Sensors, IoT). Its NAICS code is 333111 and its SIC code is 3523.