Pune-Based AgroStar Raises $27 million in Series C to Scale up Operations

Indian agro-tech startup ‘AgroStar’, based in Pune said that it has raised a dollar 27 million (Rs. 188 crore) in Series C funds to expand operations and strengthen its technology platform. Bertelsmann India Investments led the funding round along with its existing investors Accel, Chiratae Ventures & Aavishkaar Bharat Fund.

CEO of AgroStar, Shardul Sheth said, “We plan to invest more in data science & strengthen our technology capabilities so that we can offer better real-time and relevant information to more growers in the country”.

The startup is also planning to reinforce its leadership team by bringing in top executives to lead different verticals such as technology, data science and farming. Sheth said, “We have attained more than a million downloads & wish to increase it to 10 million beneficiaries in the next 2 to 3 years”.

In a statement, Managing Director of Bertelsmann India Investments, Pankaj Makkar said “the investment company will work with AgroStar to develop the right strategy for its supply chain & will bring the finest practices from our investments in similar spaces in Beijing”.

AgroStar is a platform that basically uses the farm as well as farmer-specific data offering real-time solutions to reduce cultivators’ cost of production and enhance yields. Active in Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan, the startup now wishes to expand operations in more Indian states. It also won the ET Startup Awards in the year 2016 in the ‘Social Enterprise’ category.

Since the company manages the complete agriculture value chain right from taking orders to offering farm inputs, with specialist opinion on productivity - it has to establish fulfillment centres first to open operations in a new geography.