# Deere & Company (John Deere) Deere & Company (John Deere) is a Pension Fund based in Moline, United States. ## Overview - **Organization type:** Pension Fund - **Headquarters:** Moline, United States - **Region:** North America - **Address:** One John Deere Place, Moline, IL 61265, United States - **Founded:** 1837 - **Assets under management:** Undisclosed - **Website:** deere.com - **LinkedIn:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/deere-&-co ## Regulatory record - **Reports private funds:** No ## About Deere & Company operates its corporate defined-benefit plan not as a passive allocator but as an extension of a 188-year-old industrial balance sheet. The pension sits inside a manufacturer that reported over $60 billion in annual revenue — a scale that makes it one of the larger corporate plans in the industrial Midwest, though its precise asset pool remains undisclosed. The plan's investment committee draws on the treasury and finance leadership of the parent, with CEO John May holding ultimate fiduciary authority over the trust's posture. The pension's deployment mirrors Deere's own strategic map: agricultural technology, precision farming, industrial automation, and the financial infrastructure around equipment lending. Its most distinctive vehicle is the Empower the Change growth fund, a partnership with Advantage Capital that directs capital toward underrepresented rural and minority-owned businesses in the agriculture supply chain. Confirmed co-investors and business partners include Cascade Investment — historically a roughly 10% shareholder in Deere — and the LEAP Coalition, a partnership with the National Black Growers Council and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. Direct real estate exposure includes the John Deere World Headquarters complex in Moline and the John Deere Financial Services building in Johnston, Iowa. International presence runs through John Deere Bank S.A. The plan is anchored by the parent's manufacturing cash flows and a historically overfunded liability position relative to many corporate peers. It maintains adjacent structures including the John Deere Foundation, which historically distributes roughly $30 million annually toward food security and agricultural education initiatives. The foundation is legally separate from the pension trust but shares board-level governance through the parent's executive leadership. Deere's structural edge is a sourcing model no standalone pension can replicate: it invests in the same farm-level technology that its own customers install on 8R tractors and S-Series combines. That gives its pension due diligence teams line-of-sight into adoption curves, default rates, and unit economics that outside allocators only see in post-hoc earnings calls. The pension is not a separate entity — it is one node in a capital system that originates equipment loans, services land portfolios, and now collects real-time soil, weather, and yield data from over 500,000 connected machines worldwide. For an allocator screening co-investment opportunities in agtech hardware or farm-management software, Deere's plan offers deal flow that is pre-underwritten by the parent's own engineering division. Its recurring constraint is concentration: the pension's returns correlate with the same agricultural commodity cycles that drive Deere's public equity multiple, creating a call-risk profile institutional investors require careful modeling to accept. ## Sectors - Industrial Tech - Venture Capital - Agriculture Tech - Climate Tech - Enterprise Software - Real Estate - Art ## Offices - Austin, TX - Johnston, IA - Luxembourg ## People - John May — CEO - Bill Gates — Major Shareholder (Cascade Investment) ## Questions ### How does Deere's pension source proprietary deal flow? The plan's primary sourcing advantage is Deere's own commercial operations. The parent company has direct relationships with over 500,000 connected machines globally, giving its investment team real-time data on equipment utilization, farmer credit profiles, and technology adoption trends. This visibility pre-underwrites agtech venture deals before outside allocators have access. The LEAP Coalition partnership with the National Black Growers Council also provides a sourcing channel into minority-owned agricultural businesses. ### What is the Empower the Change growth fund and how does the pension participate? Empower the Change is a growth equity fund operated in partnership with Advantage Capital, a community development financial institution. The vehicle directs capital toward underrepresented rural and minority-owned businesses in the agriculture supply chain. Deere's pension is a confirmed limited partner and co-investor in the fund, aligning the plan's capital with the parent's stated diversity and rural economic development commitments. ### Is Deere's pension invested alongside its largest shareholders? Yes. Cascade Investment, historically a roughly 10% shareholder in Deere & Company, is documented as a business partner of Deere. While specific co-investment deal terms are private, the relationship creates alignment between the pension's long-term capital and one of the world's largest permanent capital vehicles, particularly in sectors adjacent to Deere's core agricultural and industrial footprint. ### How does the John Deere Foundation relate to the pension plan? The John Deere Foundation is a legally separate philanthropic entity, historically distributing roughly $30 million annually toward food security and agricultural education programs. It is not funded by or commingled with pension assets. However, governance overlaps through Deere's executive leadership, and the foundation's grant-making themes — rural community development, agricultural education — often run parallel to the pension's investment thesis in agtech and rural infrastructure. ### What is the pension's known posture on co-investments alongside external GPs? Deere's pension participates in direct co-investments through vehicles like the Empower the Change fund and its corporate venture arm's deal flow. The plan prefers structures where Deere's operating expertise can inform due diligence — particularly in farm automation, precision agriculture, and equipment-finance technology. It is not known to operate as a traditional institutional LP writing blind-pool commitments to third-party general partners absent a strategic nexus to Deere's core business. ## Related profiles - [Dedham (Mass.) Contributory Retirement System](https://altss.com/profile/dedham-mass-contributory-retirement-system) - [Defelice Capital Management](https://altss.com/profile/defelice-capital-management) --- Last updated: 2026-08-11T02:43:31.692Z Canonical page: https://altss.com/profile/deere-company-john-deere Maintained by Altss — https://altss.com — methodology: https://altss.com/methodology