Scoop: Gates Foundation-backed Cropin to raise up to $70M in series D round
The agritech startup, which is looking to hit the public market in 4-5 years, will use the money to beef up hiring and operations at its overseas subsidiaries.
Agritech startup is set to raise $50-70 million as a part of its Series D funding round led by a large tech company and a foreign venture capital fund, Co-founder and CEO Krishna Kumar told YourStory.
The round, in which existing investors will also participate, is expected to be closed in the next few months. "We will be going to the market in the next 3-4 months," Krishna said. He declined to disclose the names of the new investors or say how much the company will be valued at for the fundraise.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-backed startup will use the fresh capital to beef up hiring and operations across its new subsidiaries in the US and Singapore, the CEO said. Last year, CropIn set up a subsidiary in the Netherlands to take its agri-tech solutions in the European Union region.
Cropin was last valued at $67.5 million, as per Tracxn estimates. With this new investment, the Bengaluru-based startup will have raised a total of $80-100 million.
It had in January last year raised $20 million in Series C funding led by ABC World Asia, with existing investors including Chiratae Ventures and Ankur Capital participating. Other investors include CDC Group, Beenext and Kris Gopalakrishnan’s family office.
Cropin is looking to hit the public markets in 4-5 years, the CEO added.
Founded in 2010, Cropin provides cloud software-based solutions to agribusinesses to help them maximise productivity using data. The startup has partnered with over 250 enterprise clients and says it has digitised 16 million acres of farmland across 92 countries.
The company recently launched Cropin Cloud, an industry platform with integrated apps for agriculture that allow users to access tools for machine learning, earth observation, and remote sensing so they can better manage crops and harvests.
Use cases include food safety measures, supply chain visibility, predictability and risk management, pest detection, yield estimates, and weather reports, according to the company.
Cropin was recognised as the Public Sector Startup Partner of the Year at the AWS Partner Awards, held recently at AWS' global conference.
The company, which counts Intello Labs, Ninjacart and Gramophone among competitors, ended FY 2022 with revenue of nearly Rs 40 crore and annual bookings of about Rs 145 crore. Net revenue retention, which indicates how contribution from existing deals has improved, jumped 120% in FY 2022, according to the company.
(The article has been updated to correct a style error.)