FarmLogs is a Y Combinator alum that seeks to modernize the farming industry. Today, the company based out of Ann Arbor, Mich., announced it’s harvesting $1 million in seed funding, which is led by Huron River Ventures and Hyde Park Ventures.

FarmLogs’ software that helps farmers manage their farm. It offers a wide range of features, including the capability to forecast and measure profits, track activities and expenses, monitor crop progress, manage inventory and sales, monitor weather, study field performance, and stay on top of crop markets and relevant news. The platform also provides analytical tools to help farmers take a more data-driven approach to agriculture.

Founder and CEO Jesse Vollmar grew up on a farm in Michigan and studied computer science. He experienced first-hand many of the inefficiencies in the farming world that led to lower yields and profits, and he set out to solve the problem.

“FarmLogs is about bringing innovation to an industry that desperately needs it,” he said. “We have an amazing opportunity to make a significant impact on the entire globe by serving the people that feed our world.”

Instead of keeping records with paper, farmers can now manage operations and conduct business via the web or mobile. Row crop farmers, who grow corn, soybeans, wheat, and such can see a daily snapshot of their farm’s performance from a central dashboard, and they can update information from the field using the GPS-enabled mobile app.

With this investment, FarmLogs will expand its team of four and accelerate development of mobile applications for the 2013 planting season.

It’s rare for a publicly traded company to be concerned when its stock price gets a dramatic increase, but that’s exactly what happened to MedBox earlier this week.

MedBox produces marijuana vending machines used in hospitals, pharmacies, doctor’s offices, and “alternative medicine clinics,” which is code for medical marijuana dispensaries. The machines use a pre-registered biometric scan to identify authorized users, track and restrict drug usage, and deliver secure reports about those that use it. The company, which was awarded a U.S. patent on its “herb” dispensing machines, has generated over $8 million in revenue since launching in 2010.

And due in part to voters in Washington and Colorado legalizing marijuana for recreational use, MedBox’s stock has experienced quite a dramatic boost. The company’s shares went from $4 on Monday to $215 by the end of the week, which prompted MedBox execs to lower investor enthusiasm, reports Marketwatch.

Obviously, investing in a business that’s highly reliant on a substance that the federal government considers illegal — despite several state-level legalization measures and widespread usage from the general population — is risky. At the same time, it could be worth the risk to get in early at a company that already has its foot in the door for an extremely lucrative new industry.

MedBox represents a very legitimate business that’s focused on the health care and medical industry, and it wouldn’t be difficult to expand its target customers should marijuana finally become legal across the country.

And while most people are still debating whether or not state rights supersede federal law, my first question was “how long is it going to take for the tech industry to take hold of this brand new marijuana industry?” If MedBox’s stock is any indication, the answer is not long at all.  That said, I’m not just talking about marijuana social networks, either.

Dispensing and inventory monitoring machines are definitely one area where tech companies can shine, but there’s also plenty of room for innovation in agriculture tech as well. Of course, all of this is dependent on marijuana being legal, which would legitimize it for the business world.

Via BoingBoing

Pilot plant studies show that the firm could produce energy-rich materials from algae at the equivalent of less than $40 a barrel, a steep drop from current crude oil prices of more than $100 a barrel and comparable to the cheapest price we’ve seen for crude, which bottomed out at $35 a barrel in 2009. In other words, it promises to be cost-competitive with petroleum even at the lowest prices.

Algae.Tec uses a proprietary process to harvest vegetable oil and biomass from algae. Those products can then be refined into ethanol, jet fuel, and biodiesel.

Algae-derived biofuels are valued because of the short period of time it takes for the organisms to grow. But in the face of scaling difficulties, the companies in this space are increasingly turning to spaces beyond the energy sector to find uses for their technology. Algae.Tec, for example, also uses algae to produce animal feed. South San Francisco-based Solazyme, which filed for a $100 million IPO earlier this month, has an algae-based skincare line. Agricultural behemoth Monsanto recently took an undisclosed equity stake in Sapphire Energy to support their search for genes that can increase crop yields.

That shift away from energy may change if researchers find a way to increase the amount of energy algae stores as fat, a development that would make the energy-harvesting process more cost-efficient. This holy grail has been sought after since the ’90s, but VG Energy may be making progress on that front with techniques originally developed to treat cancer.

[Image via Algae.Tec]

Sapphire is working on what it calls “green crude” created from algae, which can be refined into gas, diesel and jet fuel. Monsanto, a top supplier of genetically modified seeds, is on the hunt for genes that can be applied to agriculture, especially those that increase crop yields. The two companies will use Sapphire’s research tools and algae to discover genes that could be applied to agriculture, while Sapphire says the deal will help “accelerate” the commercialization of algae as a renewable energy crop.

Algae companies that originally set out to make biofuels have increasingly turned to other ways to leverage their technology. This is also true of biofuels startups in general. Yesterday, Solazyme — which has a contract with the military to deliver algal biofuels – launched a skincare line based on its microalgae research.

And big-name partnerships abound in this field. Companies like Unilever, Procter & Gamble and others have all forged partnerships and/or invested in biofuels startups whose technology could yield renewable ingredients or valuable research for their products.

The Monsanto/Sapphire partnership will work to identify genes in algae that affect an organism’s ability to supply strong yields even under non-ideal environmental conditions. The discoveries within algae could then be applied to corn, cotton, soybeans and other crops. Algae has a similar photosynthetic process to other plants, but is more efficient to work with, the companies say.

[Image via Flickr/shaferlens]

The company, which was founded by two ex-Google employees in 2006, offers what it calls “disruptive” technology that delivers personalized weather insurance products for the $3 trillion global agriculture industry. In a statement, venture capitalist Vinod Khosla said WeatherBill has the potential to “fundamentally change the risk profile” of agriculture. The company’s products is aimed at helping farmers protect their business and crops from weather changes brought on by climate change.

As we wrote last year, data is the next big thing in cleantech. WeatherBill is one of the companies leveraging weather and data to produce new products aimed at billion-dollar industries. WeatherBug is using weather data to make smart grid offerings. A number of lighting systems, home energy management and building energy management startups also factor in weather to determine how to program lighting and air conditioning systems for the maximum amount of energy savings and tenant comfort. Others use data in other ways — Genscape, for example, uses sensors to provide data about the grid that energy traders pay to use. And while WeatherBill’s weather and data technology is currently used for agricultural insurance, it could one day be used for energy markets as they become more weather-sensitive.

Farming and food supply is, of course, very sensitive to the weather. More than 90 percent of crop losses happen because of unexpected weather, and WeatherBill expects things to get worse as the effects of climate change increase the frequency of those events, says CEO David Friedberg, pointing to recent droughts in Russia and China and flooding in Australia. Friedberg co-founded the company with other ex-Googler Siraj Khaliq, now WeatherBill’s company’s chief technology officer.

The company’s technology enables the real-time pricing and purchasing of customizable weather insurance by using weather modeling and local weather monitoring systems. WeatherBill’s programs pinpoint weather conditions expected to affect adversely affect farmer’s land, and automatically pays the farmer if those weather incidents happen. The company’s technology also powers Raincheck.com, an automated weather insurance program for travelers worldwide.

Investors in this financing round also include NEA, Index Ventures, Allen & Company, First Round Capital, Atomico and Code Advisors. The company plans to use the capital to support product expansion in the U.S. and worldwide.

[Images via Flickr/Sony200boy and NatalieMaynor]