BOSTON — The board of directors of Indigo Ag, an agricultural startup formed in 2014, has selected Ron Hovsepian as its new chief executive officer. He has spent 19 months on the Indigo Ag board and was serving as acting chief operating officer. He succeeds David Perry, who stepped down after serving as CEO since December 2014. Boston-based Indigo Ag seeks to improve grower profitability, environmental sustainability and consumer health through the use of natural microbiology and technologies.

“Indigo is uniquely positioned to partner with stakeholders across the agricultural ecosystem to evolve the industry to be more efficient and beneficial for the planet,” Mr. Hovsepian said. “Indigo is on the leading edge, fostering technology that improves farm profitability and aligns with growing consumer desire for low-carbon, healthier food and fiber.”

Mr. Hovsepian worked at IBM for 16 years and then was CEO of global software company Novell and global technology provider Intralinks.

“Ron Hovsepian is a seasoned operational leader rightly suited to lead the business at this critical stage of maturation,” said Robert Berendes, chairman of the Indio Ag board of directors. “In his capacity as acting chief operating officer for the last eight months, Ron has been in front of, and engaged directly with, customers extensively. He has reshaped the organization with greater customer-centric discipline, focusing resources on four core offerings that will advance Indigo Ag’s mission and place it on a path for accelerated growth and profitability.”

Indigo Ag launched Indigo Marketplace and other initiatives under Mr. Perry’s leadership.

“The board thanks David for his leadership in building Indigo Ag over the last five years and for his passion and commitment to the company,” Mr. Berendes said. “David has great vision and foresaw how a disruption to the system of agriculture could restore economics for farmers and the health of our planet.”

Indigo Ag initially was involved in seeds and microbial technology and then entered other areas like regenerative agriculture, efforts to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and the formation of a network of growers on a digital platform to purchase identity-preserved grain.

Indigo Ag in August closed on $360 million in additional financing. Combined with $175 million in convertible equity announced in January, the company’s total Series F preferred financing has reached $535 million. The capital will be used to scale and operate Indigo’s core line of businesses: Indigo Marketplace, Indigo Carbon, Indigo Transport, Digital Agronomy and Indigo Microbials. Since inception, Indigo Ag has raised more than $1.2 billion in capital.