Bertelsmann leads $27m round for India's AgroStar

Existing investors Accel Partners, Chiratae Ventures, and Aavishkar also participated in the funding round, which will be used to scale up AgroStar’s operations by expanding into more territories and strengthening its technology platform. The company also plans to deepen its leadership team by recruiting more experienced farm professionals.

AgroStar was founded in 2013 to give Indian farmers a convenient way to procure high-quality agricultural inputs at a fair price. Farmers can use AgroStar’s platform to buy seeds, nutrients, and crop protection supplies, along with agricultural tools. The company also provides personalized agronomy guidance based on farm-specific data and external scientific measurements.

All services are available either through the app or through a phone platform that farmers can access via a missed call, a common practice in Indian businesses targeting rural and low-income clients. Customers call the company’s toll-free number and hang up immediately, thereby avoiding the cost of the call; an operator then calls back to take their order.

AgroStar has raised $41 million to date including a $3.6 million round from Aavishkar and Chiratae – then called IDG Ventures – in 2015, and a $10 million Series B round from Accel, Aavishkar and Chiratae in 2017. The company currently operates in three states, and claims to have 400,000 active monthly users.

India’s agricultural technology services space has become a popular target for investment in recent years due to its perceived ability to unlock productive potential held back by the country’s fragmented farming industry. Recent recipients of VC funding include agricultural marketing platform Ninjacart and cloud technology developer CropIn.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Technology
• Support services
• Expansion
• India
• Agriculture
• TMT
• Bertelsmann Asia Investments
• IDG Ventures
• Accel Partners
• Growth capital