April 16, 2018

Agricultural sensing and solutions startup AgNext has secured an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Mumbai-based Impact Investor Omnivore Partners, through its Omnivore Partners India Fund 2. Samir Kumar, founder of U.S.-India venture firm Inventus Capital Partners, also participated in the round as an individual, along with unnamed angel investors.

AgNext Co-Founder Taranjeet Singh Bhamra told Inc42 that the company will be using the funding “for expanding our product in the data analytics in agriculture space by creating a combination of both hardware and software. We further aim to open two international offices in Singapore and Canada in the next six months from now and will further emphasize on strengthening our R&D base at IIT Kharagpur and Kolkata.”

The company came out of the incubator at the Science and Technology Entrepreneurs Park at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur and was a participant in the agtech accelerator program run by the Indian Council on Agriculture Research and the National Academy of Agricultural Research Management  (ICAR-NAARM). It provides a data analytics platform incorporating both sensor and Big Data sources for enhanced crop monitoring and analysis, soil management, and pest control.

Co-founded by Mark Kahn and Jinesh Shah in 2010, Omnivore Partners has offices in Mumbai, New Delhi, and Bengaluru and focuses on venture capital investments spanning Seed and Series A rounds for companies in the agtech sector including digital platforms, precision ag, IoT, UAVs, remote sensing, and Big Data solutions. Omnivore also focuses on companies creating branded food products and novel ingredients, along with start-ups looking to improve rural livelihoods with supply chain, water management, and fintech solutions for smallholder farmers.

The firm recently reached the first close of the aforementioned second fund, raising $46 million out of a targeted $75 million. Reported investors include the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), RBL Bank, Sorenson Impact Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, Dutch Good Growth Fund (DGGF), Ceniarth, and German government development bank KfW.

By David Nitchman, GAI Media