“Covid has brought home for countries the risks of disrupted food supply chains, food safety and food security,” Kumar, also the startup’s chief executive officer, said in a phone interview. “Every country and every agri-business wants to remotely monitor and safeguard the supply chain.”
Backed by early investors including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Singapore-based VC BeeNext, CropIn has customers and partners in 52 countries including Basel-headquartered Syngenta Corp., the World Bank, Canada-based McCain Foods Ltd. and Germany’s BASF SE. The new funding will fuel further global expansion and help strengthen its technology.
India’s agritech space is abloom, with dozens of startups sprouting up in the last few years to disrupt dated farming practices and bring more efficiency into a massive industry dominated by small land holdings. One in nine agritech startups globally are from the South Asian nation, which had 450 such businesses in 2019, according to a report by the Indian trade body Nasscom.
That’s piqued the interest of investors such as Tiger Global and Accel, which have ploughed tens of millions into early-stage companies. Though much of the focus has been on supply chain improvements through practical approaches like aggregating farm produce and renting farm equipment, deep tech startups like CropIn working in areas like crop diagnostics and farm automation are also earning recognition.
