CropIn, an agricultural technology (agritech) firm based in India, recently raised USD 20 million in its Series C funding round. The lead investor is ABC World Asia, a private equity firm headquartered in Singapore. ABC World Asia CEO David Heng said the investment will boost the ability of “farmers to utilize real-time data for better decision-making and improved farm productivity.”
The other participating investors include two first-time investors in the company, CDC Group, a development finance institution owned by the UK government, and Pratithi Investment Trust, a family office in India. Those increasing their stakes in the firm include Ankur Capital, a venture fund focused on startups in India; Chiratae Ventures, an India-based investor active in technology; and Invested Development, a US-based investment firm seeking to create positive social and environmental impacts.
CropIn’s SmartRisk platform combines weather data with imagery recorded by satellites, drones and field staff to help agri-businesses and financial institutions that are active in agriculture to improve their decision-making with regard to lending and insurance. SmartRisk holds data on 13 million acres of land tilled by 4 million farmers. CropIn’s other products are SmartFarm, which helps with farm management; SmartSales, a customer relationship management system; and SmartWare, which helps agri-businesses harness their data for purposes such as “farm to fork traceability.”
CropIn plans to utilize the new funding primarily to expand its reach to additional countries beyond the 52 in which it is active. With this round of investment, the firm has raised a total of USD 33 million.
Krishna Kumar, Founder and CEO of CropIn, said that players in the agriculture sector are “capturing more data than ever, on everything from agronomy, weather and logistics to market price volatility, which has helped reduce acute data gaps throughout the value chain. In order to improve yields, optimise production and improve resilience and sustainability, agri-businesses are increasingly relying on innovative agri-tech solutions like artificial intelligence, data analytics, and the internet of things.”
By Bradley Shulman, Research Associate
Sources and Additional Resources
Associated Press article
https://apnews.com/press-release/business-wire/science-business-technology-sustainable-development-investment-management-10cfbd97d05b4bc9be5b0dafa77c4d44
CropIn homepage
https://www.cropin.com/
ABC World Asia homepage
https://www.abcworld.com.sg/
Ankur Capital homepage
https://www.ankurcapital.com/
CDC Group homepage
https://www.cdcgroup.com/
Chiratae Ventures homepage
https://www.chiratae.com/
Invested Development homepage
http://investeddevelopment.com/
Previous MicroCapital article on CropIn
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-agricultural-fintech-cropin-receives-8m-in-equity-from-chiratae-venture-gates-strategic-investment-fund-to-improve-satellite-imaging-outreach-in-india/
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