[Funding alert] Agritech startup Aibono secures $2M in pre-Series A round

Bengaluru-based agritech startup Aibono has raised funding in its pre-Series A round from investors in Japan and Switzerland.

The round was led by Japanese venture capital firms Rebright Partners and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital based out of Tokyo and Singapore, respectively. Swiss impact investor Lesing Artha, a subsidiary of Rianta Capital (UK), also participated in the round.

Aibono said it will use the funding to expand its connect with 2,000 additional farmers. It will also double the number of retailers who will buy the produce directly from Aibono.

At its heart, Aibono is a data science company. It integrates the supply chain from farm to consumer. The startup uses data to match demand-supply synchronisation, farm analytics, etc., to prevent food wastage, improve agricultural efficiency, as well as stabilise livelihoods of farmers, specialising in perishable vegetables.

At present, Aibono works with more than a thousand farmers and 800 retailers. It sources organics and vegetables from the Nilgiris region in Tamil Nadu. The company also offers a stack of services by helping farmers to grow better produce, and supplies produce to kiranas and the retailers.

Founder and CEO Vivek Rajkumar said,

“With this round of funding, we will now invest to scale capacity and increase supply to our existing Kirana businesses, expanding to institutional retail, as well as making possible direct-to-home supply of super perishables via modern delivery platforms like Swiggy, Dunzo, and Amazon in the next phase of our growth. We are encouraged and excited that Investor attention is on full-stack solutions starting from seed up to the point of consumption of fresh perishables as high potential businesses.”

Takeshi Ebihara, Founding General Partner of Rebright Partners, said, “With India’s retail demand for fresh farm produce going through the roof, very few players are concentrating on solving pain-points at the ground level for seamless movement of perishables across the value chain. With the government’s focus on opening up farm-gate infrastructure in recent times, we are seeing startups such as Aibono who make full-stack agri-businesses lucrative to invest in. It’s inspiring to see their sustained first, middle, and last-mile E2E operations during the pandemic delivering essential premium and perishables, while demonstrating the best financials among fruit and vegetable platforms.”