What Farmbox does

FARM BOX is a Japanese cloud agricultural support SaaS built and operated by Soft Build Co., Ltd. (株式会社ソフトビル), headquartered in Yamato Town, Kumamoto Prefecture. Marketed as an SNS-style agricultural support platform, it is designed for agricultural cooperatives (JA organizations) and local-government agricultural departments to capture, share, and analyze field-level operational data across dispersed advisor workforces. The product spans a mobile app for field staff and a web interface for management, organized into four functional pillars: 圃場マッピング (field/polygon mapping with Google Maps and WAGRI national farmland data integration), 営農支援 (SNS-style agricultural diary with multimedia attachments, approval workflows, and AI summarization), 販売支援 (cultivation planning, planting management, and shipping tracking), and 経営支援 (BI for production, sales, and producer profiles). Newer modules add generative AI learning from accumulated diaries, smartphone-based weekly report approval, schedule sharing, and a hybrid AI-chatbot-plus-human-advisor support model.

The business model is a subscription SaaS with a freemium trial and quote-based pricing — prospective customers are routed through a 7-step enterprise onboarding (consultation, proposal, test operation, contract, account setup, training, ongoing support). Go-to-market combines direct enterprise sales into the JA network, government-channel adoption via two MAFF grant acceptances (2023, 2025), and community-led referrals through flagship cooperative customers such as JA Okinawa (active since 2014, ~250 users, 20,000–25,000 mapped plots, ~230,000 diary entries) and JA Group Kumamoto (13 JA organizations, ~65,000 mapped plots, ~195,000 diary entries). Documented outcomes include a 91.7% efficiency improvement in an emergency pest-control response at JA Okinawa (April 2025), and roughly 270 hours / ¥540,000 in annual operational savings per organization under typical usage assumptions. Geographic reach currently covers Kumamoto, Okinawa, Nagasaki, Mie, and Kagoshima prefectures; the company operates with 1–10 employees and has no disclosed external funding.

Name

Farmbox

Legal name

株式会社ソフトビル

Website

https://farm-box.net

Company type

Private

Founded year

2019

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

FARM BOX is a Japanese SNS-style agricultural support SaaS built by Soft Build Co., Ltd., serving agricultural cooperatives (JA organizations) and local-government agricultural departments with field mapping, multimedia diary, AI summarization, and approval workflows across multiple prefectures in Japan.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Agricultural Management Software

NAICS

Farm Management Services (115116)

SIC

Agricultural Services (700)

akta.pro primary industry

Farm Management Information Systems (FMIS) & Digital Recordkeeping (AFABAMAD)

akta.pro secondary industries

Farm Data Platforms, Integration & APIs (Interoperability/Middleware) (AFAAAFAG), Decision Support & Agronomic Modeling (Yield, Irrigation, Pest/Disease Forecasting) (AFAAAFAF), Farm Financial Management & Recordkeeping Services (AFACAJAC), Interoperability & Data Connectivity Services (API/ETL, ISOXML/AgGateway, Equipment Data Sync) (AFACACAL), Farm Technology Enablement & Data Integration Advisory (FMIS/ERP, IoT, Decision Support) (AFACAJAG)

Keywords

• Agricultural support software
• Farm management platform
• Agricultural cooperative software
• Agriculture diary system
• Farm mapping software

Headquarters

HQ city

Kagoshima

HQ country

Japan

HQ region

Asia

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. SaaS Subscription: FARMBOX operates as a cloud-based SaaS agricultural support platform with subscription-based pricing. The service includes free trial/test operation period before contract commitment. Revenue is generated through recurring subscription fees for access to the platform and its features including farm mapping, diary management, AI analysis, and reporting.
2. Professional Services: Implementation services including pre-introduction consultation, system setup, account configuration, training sessions, and ongoing support. These implementation and training services support customer adoption.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

FARMBOX is a cloud-based SNS-style agricultural support platform that helps Japanese agricultural cooperatives (JA organizations), local government agricultural departments, and field advisors capture, share, and analyze farm-level information via mobile and web apps. Core capabilities include polygon-based farm mapping (with WAGRI agricultural land API integration), a shared agricultural diary with photo and video attachments, automatic report generation, planting and sales management, weekly report approval workflows, and AI-powered (including generative AI) analysis of accumulated production data.

Product overview

FARM BOX is a unified SNS-style agricultural support platform for agricultural cooperatives (JA) and local agricultural organizations. The platform consists of a core product with mobile app for field work and web interface for administrative management, along with specialized modules covering field mapping (圃場マッピング), agricultural support (営農支援) with diary and approval workflows, sales support (販売支援) for planning and shipping management, and business management (経営支援) for analysis. AI-powered add-ons include generative AI learning functions for analyzing accumulated diaries, planting management, and schedule sharing. The platform integrates with WAGRI agricultural land data, LINE, Google Maps, and supports data export for secondary use.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• FARMBOX Mobile App Mobile application for field workers (agricultural advisors) to record observations, submit diary entries with photos and video, and access shared information on-site via iOS and Android, supporting smartphone-based approval workflows for weekly reports.
• Field Mapping (圃場マッピング) Visual field management module for Japanese agricultural cooperatives (JA) with polygon-based farm mapping and Google Maps integration, supporting manual drawing, WAGRI API polygon selection, and bulk import from existing agricultural land registries, covering tens of thousands of fields per major customer.
• Agricultural Support (営農支援) Diary creation and management module with photo, video and text attachments, approval workflows, automatic weekly report generation, timeline sharing, and notifications for agricultural guidance activities of JA staff and producers.
• Sales Support (販売支援) Sales-focused module that transforms agricultural information into planning data, including cultivation planning management, planting management, growth status tracking, and shipping status management for JA sales operations.
• Management Support (経営支援) Business intelligence module utilizing accumulated agricultural data for production analysis, sales analysis, business analysis, and farmer profile creation, integrating with core enterprise systems of JA organizations.
• Generative AI Learning Function (生成AI学習機能) AI-powered function that uses accumulated FARMBOX diary entries as training material for generative AI, enabling automatic summarization of growth conditions, situation analysis, and the creation of organization-specific AI models for knowledge succession materials and junior staff training.
• Planting Function (植付機能) Planting management function covering the full planning-to-harvest cycle, integrating with 1km mesh weather data and sales information, and automatically aggregating cultivated area and harvest volume from planting records.
• Schedule Sharing Function (スケジュール共有機能) Team schedule management module with member status display (e.g., office, outgoing) and smartphone-accessible schedule viewing and editing, replacing paper and Excel-based planning at JA organizations.
• Weekly Report Approval (週報承認機能) Weekly report digitalization and smartphone approval workflow that allows staff to create, submit, and approve weekly reports entirely within the FARMBOX mobile app, replacing paper-based processes.

Quantifiable outcome

• Annual 270 hours (62 minutes/day) operational time reduction per organization
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers9 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration5 records

AI capability9 records

Feature11 records

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core, flagship and supporting.

• WAGRI (ワグリ)coreTechnology or Integration · 1 January 2025WAGRI's integrated agricultural land API provides access to 30 million nationwide farmland polygon data used for FARMBOX's automatic farm mapping feature. FARMBOX leverages WAGRI data to match and classify farm plot addresses, enabling automated location registration for farm management.
• AgVenture Lab ( あぐラボ / 一般社団法人AgVenture Lab)coreGTM or Marketing Partner · 15 September 2023AgVenture Lab provides agriculture startup support to FARMBOX. They assisted with FARMBOX's first exhibition at Agriculture WEEK 2023 and provide ongoing support for expanding FARMBOX's value and service reach to more JA organizations. AgVenture Lab co-exhibited with FARMBOX and provided booth space at industry events.
• ながさき西海農業協同組合 (Nagasaki Saikai Agricultural Cooperative)flagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2023Target JA for new FARMBOX implementation under the MAFF agriculture support service project. This partnership represents the expansion of FARMBOX services to new agricultural cooperatives.
• LINE CorporationsupportingTechnology or IntegrationLINE messaging platform integration is mentioned as available through API customization. FARMBOX can connect with LINE to enable agricultural information distribution to producers through the LINE messaging app.
• FarmChatsupportingTechnology or IntegrationRecommended producer communication app that can be integrated with FARMBOX through API customization for enhanced communication between agricultural advisors and producers.
• 熊本県農業協同組合中央会 (Kumamoto Prefecture Agricultural Cooperative Central Union)flagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerAdvanced implementation partner providing support for solving challenges and accelerating FARMBOX adoption to other JAs. Serves as reference customer and mentor for new JA implementations.
• 沖縄県農業協同組合 (Okinawa Agricultural Cooperative)flagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerAdvanced implementation partner supporting FARMBOX expansion to other regions. JAおきなわ has been using FARMBOX since 2014 and provides support for new implementations.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Vegetalia: Japanese agricultural SaaS focused on farm recordkeeping and JA-facing digital transformation. Competes with FARMBOX for the same Japanese agricultural cooperative and producer segments with similar diary-style recordkeeping functionality.
• WaterCell (ウォーターセル): Operates 'Agri-note,' a leading Japanese farm management and field recordkeeping SaaS used widely by JA cooperatives and individual farmers. Most direct functional peer to FARMBOX in the Japanese FMIS market, competing on similar diary/mapping/AI workflows for the same JA customer base.
• AgriBus (NipponSoft): Japanese farm management mobile app for crop recording, work logging, and JA-aligned workflows. Competes with FARMBOX for the same farmer and JA-adjacent customer segments with overlapping diary and field-mapping features.

Broad incumbents

• Trimble Agriculture: Global precision agriculture and FMIS vendor serving large commercial farms. Comparable to FARMBOX in offering integrated mapping, recordkeeping, and decision support, but at a much larger scale and without the JA-specific workflow specialization.
• Climate FieldView (Bayer): Global farm management and precision agriculture platform owned by Bayer. While primarily focused on row-crop markets in the Americas and Europe, it represents the global incumbent standard for data-driven farm management that FARMBOX's AI-enabled offering aspires to in the Japanese context.
• Fujitsu Akisai: Fujitsu's agricultural cloud platform offering production management and food value chain solutions to Japanese producers and cooperatives. Major incumbent with broader portfolio and significantly larger enterprise sales reach than FARMBOX.
• NTT e-kakashi (NTT東日本): NTT's agricultural IoT platform combining sensors, cloud analytics, and advisory services. Competes broadly with FARMBOX in the same Japanese agtech category but with deeper infrastructure, telco channels, and a national sales footprint rather than JA-specialist focus.

Emerging players

• Agremo: Aerial imagery and AI analytics platform for crop monitoring and field mapping. Comparable to FARMBOX's decision-support and mapping layer but focused on remote sensing rather than diary-centric recordkeeping.
• xFarm Technologies: European-originated farm management SaaS expanding across multiple geographies with field mapping, diary-style records, and AI analytics. Comparable in product architecture to FARMBOX and representative of how a focused FMIS can scale beyond its home market.
• Agri-Connect: Japanese agricultural SaaS focused on producer-to-market digitalization, including traceability and JA-side coordination. Functionally adjacent to FARMBOX, with overlap on sales support, planting tracking, and supply-side reporting features.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xtwitter.com/sb_kumamoto
• Facebookfacebook.com/sb.kumamoto
• Instagraminstagram.com/sb_kumamoto

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Farmbox