AgroStar raises $70 million in its Series D funding round

Agritech startup AgroStar has raised $70 million as a part of its Series D funding round from Evolvence, global asset manager Schroders Capital, Hero Enterprise, and UK’s development finance institution CDC.

The round also saw participation from existing investors Aavishkaar Capital, Accel, Bertelsmann, Chiratae Ventures, and Rabo Frontier Ventures.

According to the company, it plans to use the proceeds from the current round to strengthen its technology platform, hire senior talent, and further scale its omnichannel strategy.

Eight-year-old AgroStar leverages data and technology to help farmers with access to good quality agri-inputs. The startup’s agri inputs platform serves over five million farmers across states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh, it said.

“We are now doubling down on our omnichannel strategy to provide a seamless experience to our farmers across various touchpoints both digital and physical. We plan to utilize the funding to strengthen our tech platform, hire senior talent, expand into new categories, geographies and scale to over 5,000 AgroStar branded retail stores to fuel our omnichannel strategy. We will also expand our services to provide meaningful market linkage value additions for our large and growing farmer base and look at acquisition opportunities in this area," said Shardul Sheth, co-founder, and chief executive officer (CEO), AgroStar.

The company declined to disclose the post-money valuation, following the fundraise.

AgroStar has also built a multilingual content-led commerce platform for farmers, and has seen its mobile app crossing the 5 million download milestone, recently. According to the company, farmers use the AgroStar app to read and watch agronomy content, post pictures of their crop problems to get advice, share and comment on fellow farmer posts, use voice search to look for agri products, and transact on the platform.

“The platform has seen a ten-fold growth in video content consumption over the last year. Our platform is easy to use for the Indian farmer and adds real value on ground for them. We believe that this is just the beginning and foresee massive acceleration in digital adoption by 140 million plus Indian farmers over the next few years," said Sitanshu Sheth, co-founder and chief operating officer (COO), AgroStar, in a statement.

Recently, AgroStar also forayed into an omnichannel strategy with the rollout of AgroStar branded stores. The company has also ramped up its brand stores from 50 to over 1,000 stores in the last twelve months.

“We are strong believers in AgroStar’s business model as it addresses the service gap in the Agri space by building the largest tech-enabled omnichannel platform that enables farmers to access knowledge and buy quality products across channels. The strength of the founders and knowledge first approach are clear differentiators," said Abhishek Chandra, managing director of Evolvence India.

India is already the third-largest nation in terms of agritech funding (after Germany and the US), with investments growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 53%—from $91 million in 2017 to $329 million in 2020, according to a recent report from Bain & Company.

“The agriculture sector plays a fundamental role in delivering a wide range of growth opportunities for any country, with farmers at the helm as the key drivers of the industry. We are proud to be making an investment in AgroStar, via a co-investment alongside Aavishkaar Capital, that will support enterprising farmers, bolster India’s Agriculture sector, and help accelerate inclusive economic and social impact in the country," said Craig Gifford, head, South Asia Private Equity Funds, at CDC Group.