Bertelsmann India leads $27 Mn Series C round in AgroStar

Pouring capital by VCs in agritech startup is on the rise. While last year didn't experience much capital infusion in this space, the running calendar year has been witnessing back to back deals in the segment.

The segment also turned bullish as Flipkart founder Sachin Bansal demonstrated a strong interest and set up a firm to back agritech startups.

Earlier this week, several top-notch VCs and a slew of angel investors put in $2 million seed fund in TartanSense, an agriculture robotics startup. Today, Bertelsmann India has led $27 million Series C round in Pune-based AgroStar.

Existing investors Accel, Chirate Ventures and Aavishkar Bharat Fund also participated in the round.

The company uses farm and farmer-specific data to provide real-time solutions to reduce farmers’ cost of production and thus improve yields.

AgroStar is one of the few well-funded startups in this segment with $10 million series B round in 2017 and $4 million Series A round in 2015.

The six-year-old startup will use the latest proceeds to invest more in data science and strengthen its technology capabilities. A significant part of the capital will also be deployed to bring top executives to lead various verticals like technology, data science, and agriculture.

Currently present in Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Rajasthan, AgroStar is aiming to scale up operations across more states revealed the company's press statement.

A brainchild of Shardul Sheth and Sitanshu Sheth, AgroStar sells agricultural inputs and products to farmers. It provides agri solutions for farmers for their entire crop life-cycle with a simple “missed call” or through its Android app.

The startup claims to have achieved more than a million downloads with over 400,000 monthly active users.