India's AgroStar raises $70m Series D
Indian agriculture industry platform provider AgroStar has raised a $70 million Series D round led by Evolvence Capital, Schroders Capital, Hero Enterprise, and CDC Group.
Existing investors Bertelsmann India Investments, Accel Partners, Chiratae Ventures, Aavishkar Capital, and Rabo Frontier Ventures, also participated. Bertelsmann led a $27 million Series C in 2019. It brings total funding since inception in 2013 to $111 million.
AgroStar provides a range of supply chain services that help farmers place orders for seeds, nutrients, crop protection supplies, and agricultural tools, and receive deliveries within three days.
It also offers a media service focused on agronomy guidance that publishes 100-150 articles a day. The idea is to increase crop yield, reduce expenditures, and help grow better quality products that can fetch a higher price.
Recent developments include a question-and-answer feature, a weather service, and an omnichannel strategy that has seen the company grow a footprint of 50 branded stores to more than 1,000 in the past year. During the same period, the online platform recorded 10x growth in video content consumption. The company is profitable.
The mobile app recently surpassed five million downloads, four million of which came in the past one-and-a-half years, and there are plans to grow the user base to 140 million farmers in the next few years.
The omnichannel program is hoped to grow to 5,000 stores within two years. This will include an expansion into new categories and geographies locally. Operations currently span the states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh.
More on South Asia
Latest News
Asian GPs slow implementation of ESG policies - survey
Asia-based private equity firms are assigning more dedicated resources to environment, social, and governance (ESG) programmes, but policy changes have slowed in the past 12 months, in part due to concerns raised internally and by LPs, according to a...
Singapore fintech start-up LXA gets $10m seed round
New Enterprise Associates (NEA) has led a USD 10m seed round for Singapore’s LXA, a financial technology start-up launched by a former Asia senior executive at The Blackstone Group.
India's InCred announces $60m round, claims unicorn status
Indian non-bank lender InCred Financial Services said it has received INR 5bn (USD 60m) at a valuation of at least USD 1bn from unnamed investors including “a global private equity fund.”
Insight leads $50m round for Australia's Roller
Insight Partners has led a USD 50m round for Australia’s Roller, a venue management software provider specializing in family fun parks.