Agricultural Brokerage Mercaris Builds Bridges with Investors Via digitalundivided Focus100
Executive Summary
Mercaris is a market information service and online trading platform focused on organic and non-GMO agricultural commodities. It was founded by Kellee James and Chris Duesing almost eight years ago. An acquaintance invited Kellee James to digitalundivided’s (DID) Focus100 conference in 2012, and she had the opportunity to deepen her rapport with Freada Kapor Klein of Kapor Capital. The relationship ultimately led to a six-figure investment for Mercaris. Upon joining the DID network, James discovered an invaluable peer community, and she has raised over $10 million in venture investment.
Who Is Mercaris?
As early as 2004, James began ideation on what would become Mercaris. She was an early hire at Chicago Climate (CCX), one of the first exchanges to trade carbon credits as a means to control climate change. This was her first foray into the startup universe, and it was also where she met Duesing. James worked for CCX for five years before joining the Obama Administration as a White House Fellow in 2009. Duesing departed CCX not long after and began consulting. In 2011 James left the Administration and began consulting part-time. She reconnected with Duesing and officially launched Mercaris in 2012. James attended Focus100 the same year. In 2013, Mercaris raised $750,000 in its seed round from Kapor Capital, Pierre Omidyar, Joanne Wilson, and Troy Henikoff. James then left consulting to focus on Mercaris full-time.
While James established the original idea and vision for Mercaris, she and Duesing are a complementary team with her focus on driving business development and his contributions as a software engineer. The pair sit on the company’s board and share similar perspectives on business growth and values.
Challenges & Outcome
One of the earliest challenges James faced in entrepreneurship was determining the specific method of raising capital. Armed with a modest web presence and an in-depth whitepaper on the topic of agricultural commodities trading, James targeted her ideal investors. Kapor Capital was on that list. While she’d received an introduction previously, it was at DID’s Focus100 conference that James was able to have a formal discussion with Freada Kapor Klein and Brian Dixon, key partners of the ground-breaking venture firm. Kapor Capital would later invest in both the seed and A-rounds for her company. James also received a six-figure investment across seed and A-rounds from the Comcast Ventures’ Catalyst Fund after meeting William Crowder at Focus 100. She walked away from the conference inspired and energized by the network and the sense of community.
As a member of the DID community, James welcomed the challenge to think bigger. She appreciated the camaraderie of black and brown women amidst the homogenous, white male startup universe. She abandoned the idea that those men were the yardstick by which she should assess her business and she felt empowered by being a part of the thriving network of successful women of color.
As a black woman entrepreneur, it is important to James that she continues to support her community in a variety of ways--even if the majority of her clients are non-POC farmers. Forty percent of the Mercaris board is black, and one of the company’s economists is a black woman. James has acted as a conduit for black businesses, including Ellis Island Tea, who was looking for black-owned sugar cane farms. Mercaris does not deal in sugar cane, but James knew two farmers in the category and brokered the introduction.
While access to investors and potential funding via DID is a compelling benefit, the strength of the community isn’t to be understated. Having a peer network with which to share knowledge and experiences has been invaluable. James continues to support DID founders as a virtual mentor.