Agritech startup CropIn raises $20 mn from Temasek-backed ABC World, others

With this new round, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-backed startup has raised total funding of $33.1 mn so far

Artificial intelligence and data-led agritech startup CropIn has raised $20 million in a Series C funding round led by ABC World Asia, an Asia-focused private equity fund. Existing investors Chiratae Ventures, Invested Development and Ankur Capital also participated in this funding round. Other new investors include CDC Group and Kris Gopalakrishnan’s family office Pratithi Investment Trust.

With this new round of investment, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-backed startup has raised a total funding of $33.1 million to date.

CropIn will use this capital infusion to focus on its global expansion, while continuing to innovate on its machine learning-based predictive analytics platform, SmartRisk to further strengthen its artificial intelligence capabilities. It is also investing to penetrate deeper in its target markets globally. Recently, the company opened an Amsterdam office, and will be hiring local leaders to drive growth in the European market.

CropIn’s farm data and agronomy management platform, SmartFarm, empowers stakeholders to improve efficiency, productivity, predictability, and sustainability of their crop value-chains. It enables agri-enterprises to adhere to food safety standards thereby ensuring farm-to-fork traceability. The platform helps growers adopt sustainable farming practices to build long term economic viability and resiliency for local farming communities. The company has partnered with several global players in over 50 countries, to drive their digital and sustainability goals.

 

“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. We, at CropIn, are excited to advance the ‘AI-Culture’ for Agriculture,” said Krishna Kumar, Founder and CEO of CropIn. 

Based in Singapore, ABC World Asia, a PE fund established by Temasek Holdings, invests in companies that demonstrate commitment to generating positive and measurable social or environmental impact. Sugandhi Matta, Managing Director of ABC World Asia, will also join CropIn as a board member as part of this fund-raise.

“CropIn’s digital solutions will enable farmers to utilise real-time data for better decision-making and improved farm productivity. This investment underscores our support of such smart and sustainable agri-tech solutions that can build resilience in agriculture,” said David Heng, Founder and CEO of ABC World Asia.

Ambit Corporate Finance acted as the financial advisor to CropIn for this funding round.