California-based early-stage tech investor CerraCap has made an undisclosed investment in AgShift, the developer of the world’s first AI food inspection system.
Founded by company CEO Miku Jha, AgShift is working to instill objectivity and consistency, and to remove bias in the food safety space. Employing computer vision and cloud-based deep learning models, AgShift’s technology platform is able to inspect produce and commodities for quality and defects such as bruising, and to then make judgments based on either an organization’s requirements or specifications put forth by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The ratings generated through this platform are able to augment physical inspection processes, and can mitigate food waste, disputes between suppliers and buyers, inconsistent food quality, and brand reputation damage.
“In Agro-tech, there is hardly any company that is embarking on the journey to change the landscape of food inspection. AgShift offers a completely unbiased, objective, quality assessment for commodities, protecting the quality, sourcing, pricing and brand – every single time,” said Ritesh Agarwal, managing director of CerraCap Ventures.
This is the second funding secured by AgShift in the past year. In March 2018 Exfinity Venture Partners, a “frontier technology fund backing enterprise companies in India and across the India-U.S. business corridor” made its first pure-play agtech investment, committing $2 million in seed funding to the startup.
“We have proven out our core technology working with these great partners,” said Jha at the time. “Now, with new capital, we will work towards strengthening our development team and maturing the product for specific enterprise and use cases.”
CerraCap is a global fund focusing on B2B solutions in emerging technologies associated with AI, healthcare, and cyber security. Through its Sales and Scale model, the fund takes an active stance in regard to commercializing its portfolio companies’ technologies – something that AgShift sees as instrumental to its growth.
“For young technology startups in food technology – one of the key challenges is accessing the right advisors, stakeholders and strategic partners in the food supply chain,” said Jha. “Technology startups have a tough time maneuvering through this complex ecosystem. In this regard, partnership with CerraCap Ventures has been instrumental for us. They have helped us open the doors with their existing network and right sponsors, at the right time. Their belief and support in our overall vision is truly encouraging. We are extremely pleased to have a strategic partner in CerraCap Ventures.”
-Lynda Kiernan