Chiratae Ventures-backed agritech startup Cropin today said it raised Rs 113 crore (approximately $14 million) in funding from Google and JSR Corporation in a round that saw participation from its existing investors.
This comes at a time when the agritech sector has seen funding pouring in on the back of investors' optimism in the nascent sector’s potential to grow on rising demand for quality food post-pandemic, supported by macro tailwinds like climate change and food security concerns.
“We will use most of the funds for the international expansions that we are doing like we recently entered into the United States and Europe. So we are going deep into those markets. We will sit closer with the customer because we want to go deep with them, expand with them as well,” said Krishna Kumar, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Cropin.
Kumar also told Moneycontrol the company will also be investing more in the Cropin AI (Artificial Intelligence) platform and building upon what was made in the last 10 years, accelerating the pace of innovation. The goal of Cropin AI Labs, the company stated, is to bring predictive intelligence to acres of world’s cultivable land.
Earlier in an interview, Kumar had said that the company is poised to raise about $50-70 million. He added that two large tech companies had shown immediate interest, and will be followed up by a Series D round by mid of 2023. Kumar, however, did not disclose further details on the round.
Founded in 2010 by Kumar, Cropin is an agritech company that has developed an industry cloud for agriculture - Cropin Cloud. Cropin Cloud enables stakeholders in the agri-ecosystem to leverage digitisation and predictive intelligence to make decisions that help increase farming efficiency, scale productivity, manage risk and environmental changes, and enhance sustainability, the company said.
Kumar said the newly raised fund will also help in expanding the Cropin Cloud, that was launched in September 2022. According to the company, Cropin Cloud's intelligence platform has provided predictive intelligence for over 200 million acres of farmland worldwide, to date.
“What we liked the most about Cropin is their quest for innovation, passion for solving critical global challenges, and leveraging technology to transform the fundamental fabric of agriculture… This investment underlines our strong belief in their growth and the impact they deliver to co-create a truly sustainable global agri-food ecosystem,” said Sudhir Sethi, founder, and chairman of Chiratae Ventures India Advisors.
According to data available on the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) website, Cropin’s revenue more than doubled to Rs 39.1 crore in FY22 (2021-22) from Rs 18.8 crore in the previous fiscal. Kumar added that the company is witnessing 2x revenue growth in FY23 as well.
However, the company also recorded a loss of Rs 43.2 crore in FY22 over Rs 35,2 crore in the previous fiscal owing to an increase in its employee benefit expenses in the financial year.
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