Pune-based Agritech FarmERP has raised an undisclosed amount in its Series A round from Singapore-based strategic investor Technogen.
Founded by Sanjay Borkar and Santosh Shinde in 2006, the company offers enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform to agriculture companies and startups, crop insurance companies, non-governmental organizations, research and design (R&D) institutions, and governments. FarmERP claims that it has been deployed in over 25 countries.
The company plans to use the recent funding to develop artificial intelligence (AI)-based climate resilience intelligence that will enable its clients to mitigate climate risks in agriculture and achieve sustainability.
With its in-house climate resilience tech, the company seeks to address one of the most common problems by the agriculture sector. FarmERP said it would also help it expand its operations to the newer regions, local media Inc42 reported. Meanwhile, the company is working on refining farming and agricultural operations through its expertise in AI, machine learning, computer vision, and blockchain technologies, the report added.
The company will use these technologies to provide better predictions to customers to mitigate climate-related risks and make them better prepared.
FarmERP CEO and co-founder Borkar said, “Predictable and intelligent agriculture is the future and we are committed to empowering our clients across the globe to take on new challenges in this competitive landscape.”
FarmERP is not the only agrtitech firm in India that has caught the investors’ attention. With Bengaluru-based B2B fresh produce supply chain company Ninjakart raising USD 100 million from Tiger Global in April and getting Walmart and Flipkart on its cap table with their joint undisclosed funding earlier this month, the sector has become a hotbed for global venture firms as well as large corporations that are eyeing India’s soon-to-be USD 10 billion online grocery market.
Two weeks back, Gurugram-based Bijak, a B2B trade platform for the agricultural sector, said it received USD 2.5 million from Omnivore, Omidyar Network India, Sequoia Capital’s accelerator program Surge, and Better Capital. Late November, New Delhi-based B2B wholesale supplier Kamatan Farm Tech raised USD 4 million from Samunnati Agro Solutions, while Chennai-based WayCool Foods And Products, which offers technology to improve logistics and distribution services, reduce food waste, increase farmer income, and improve the quality of the produce, got USD 5.2 million funding from Netherland development finance company, FMO Entrepreneurial Development Bank.
According to a report by industry body NASSCOM, Indian start-ups in the agritech sector received more than USD 248 million funding in the first six months this year, registering 300% growth as compared to the first half of 2018 funding.
The report said agritech sector is growing at the rate of 25% year-on-year, India currently hosts more than 450 start-ups in the agritech sector.