Agritech startup Cropin raises $14 million from Google, JSR Corp, others

• ByAmbi Das     |    January 9, 2023

Agritech startup Cropin announced today that it has raised Rs 113 crore ($14 million) in funding from Google and JSR Corporation in a round that also included contributions from its current investors. 

This occurs at a time when money for the agritech sector has been flooding in as a result of investors’ confidence in the young industry’s ability to expand in response to increased post-pandemic demand for high-quality food, bolstered by macro tailwinds like climate change and food security worries.

Krishna Kumar, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Cropin said, “We will use most of the funds for the international expansions that we are doing like we recently entered into the United States and Europe. So we are going deep into those markets. We will sit closer with the customer because we want to go deep with them, expand with them as well.”

Additionally, Kumar said that the business would be stepping up its investment in the Cropin AI (Artificial Intelligence) platform, building on advancements made in the previous ten years, and quickening the rate of innovation. Cropin AI Labs wants to bring predictive intelligence to acres of arable land throughout the world, according to the business. 

In a previous interview, Kumar had stated that the business was prepared to raise between $50 and 70 million. He also mentioned that a Series D financing would be conducted by the middle of 2023 after two significant IT businesses expressed an instant interest. However, Kumar withheld additional information about the round. 

Cropin is an agritech business that Kumar founded in 2010. It has created an industry cloud called Cropin Cloud specifically for agriculture. According to the firm, Cropin Cloud gives agri-ecosystem stakeholders the opportunity to use digitalization and predictive intelligence to make decisions that improve sustainability, scale productivity, and manage risk. 

According to Kumar, the recently collected funds would also aid in the growth of the Cropin Cloud, which was introduced in September 2022. Over 200 million acres of farmland globally have received predictive intelligence from Cropin Cloud’s intelligence platform, the business claims.

Sudhir Sethi, founder, and chairman of Chiratae Ventures India Advisors said, “What we liked the most about Cropin is their quest for innovation, passion for solving critical global challenges, and leveraging technology to transform the fundamental fabric of agriculture… This investment underlines our strong belief in their growth and the impact they deliver to co-create a truly sustainable global agri-food ecosystem.”

Cropin’s revenue increased by more than twofold to Rs 39.1 crore in FY22 (2021–2022) from Rs 18.8 crore the previous fiscal year, according to information available on the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) website. Kumar continued by saying that the company has had a 2x increase in revenue in FY23. 

However, the company also experienced a loss of Rs 43.2 crore in FY22 compared to Rs 35,2 crore in the prior fiscal year as a result of a rise in employee benefit costs.

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