CropIn Technology Solutions Pvt. Ltd, a Bengaluru-based company that makes farm management software and apps, has raised $2 million (Rs 13.4 crore) from Denmark's Sophia Investment ApS, a person people privy to the development.
The transaction valued the company at $12 million, the person said, asking not to be named.
This is the first known investment by Sophia Investment in India. The social enterprise foundation invests in and incubates companies engaged in financial and livelihood services for the poor. It is focussed on South Asia and Africa.
The person also said that CropIn Technology plans to use the money to hire staff in the marketing, operations and technology segments. Besides, it plans to develop its 'SmartFarm' application for real-time monitoring and management of farm operations.
The firm had earlier raised Rs 50 lakh in convertible debt from Mumbai-based impact investor Ankur Capital for a 30% stake.
CropIn, earlier called CropEx, was founded in 2010 by Krishna Kumar, a graduate in instrumentation and electronics engineering from Visvesvaraya Technological University in Karnataka. Prior to setting up this venture, he worked in various roles at General Electric.
The company provides a cloud-based software platform to help farmers track their produce and consignments. It also offers an enterprise resource planning and business intelligence platform that has an in-built traceability system and collaborates with participants along the supply chain to monitor the status of farm produce. The platform also helps farmers manage the field workforce.
Bengaluru-based Guru & Jana Chartered Accountants advised Sophia Investment on the transaction.
In the farm-tech sector, Mumbai-based startup Krishi Star last week raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from a consortium of four investors led by Upaya Social Ventures and Artha Venture Challenge, along with 1to4 Foundation and an angel investor.
Another Mumbai-based startup called Truce, run by White Shadow Technology Pvt. Ltd, raised 2.5 crore ($370,000) in an angel round of funding from Snapdeal co-founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, Shaadi.com founder Anupam Mittal, InMobi co-founder Amit Gupta and others in January this year. Truce procures fruits and vegetables from farmers across Maharashtra and sells them to mid-large sized restaurant and hotel chains in Mumbai.
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