Exclusive: Agritech startup AgNext raises over $21 Mn led by AWI

Agritech startup AgNext has raised a little over $21 million in a new round led by Falcon Edge’s Alpha Wave Incubation. The Chandigarh-based startup had finished its pre-Series A round in January 2019.

AgNext has approved the allotment of 3 equity shares and 3817 Series A preference shares at an issue price of Rs 201,893 each to raise Rs 77.12 crore or $10.5 million, regulatory filings show.

According to the company, it has also raised $10.5 million through grants for its Abu Dhabi-based entity for international expansion.

Participation of existing backers and valuation

AgNext has kicked off the new round led by AWI along with existing investors Kalaari Capital and Omnivore Partners. AWI has invested Rs 58.5 crore whereas Omnivore and Kalaari put in Rs 11.6 crore and Rs 7 crore respectively.

According to Fintrackr’s estimates, AgNext has raised the fresh round at a post-money valuation of Rs 375-400 crore or $50-54 million. The startup has raised close to $25 million to date including a $2.1 million seed investment from Omnivore in April 2018.

AgNext biz model and competition

Led by Taranjeet Singh Bhamra, ​​AgNext provides AI-based solutions for enabling trade at every intersection of buying and selling happening in agricultural and food value chains. AgNext has built proprietary hardware, algorithms and software to analyse commodity quality in multiple domains like spices, tea, grains, oilseeds, milk, feed amongst others.

AgNext's nodal agencies and clients include NAFED, Olam, Arya, Compass Group and Okahola.

Over the past four-five years, several startups have started providing innovative agritech solutions like artificial intelligence, data analytics and the internet of things backed data. AgNext competes with the likes of Gramophone, Agrostar, CropIn and DeHaat.

Investments in agritech startups and recent developments

Around 30 startups in the agritech space had raised fundings in 2020 and the trend continues in the ongoing calendar year as well in which DeHaat, Vegrow, Waycool and Ninjacart have already kicked off their new round. As per a recent media report, DeHaat is in talks to raise $100 million in what could be one of the largest funding rounds for an agritech startup in India. Those are very good numbers, considering how controlled India’s agriculture sector is, and the long gestation any agriculture startup needs owing to the nature of the sector.

Meanwhile, AgNext has been selected by Google for its fifth batch of startup accelerator programme in India. The list also includes OkCredit, Walrus, Bullet and Zypp Electric.

Update: We have changed the heading and story to reflect AgNext has raised $21 million in total.