Brazil’s Agrosmart raises $5.8m Series A for digital tool serving Coca-Cola & Cargill
Summary
We are going global together with our partners in the market, however this round still focuses mostly in Latin America where we already started operations, Mariana Vasconcelos, CEO & founder of S\xe3o Paulo-based digital agtech startup Agrosmart tells AFN.The digital agriculture platform recently booked a $5.8 million Series A, receiving backing from Brazils second-largest banking giant Bradescos Inovabra Ventures fund, as well as computer manufacturer Positivo Tecnologias corporate venture arm.Agrosmart uses big data and analytics to help farmers across nine countries increase the efficiency and sustainability of their operations across a diverse range of crops grains, coffee, sugar cane, cotton and fruits. The US soda juggernaut uses Agrosmart to monitor its fruit farms in Esp\xedrito Santo, Brazil.Agrosmart is constantly adding to its technology stack, according to Vasconcelos who says it deploys new features quickly. From IoT to AI and blockchain, we use state of the art tech to solve our customers problems, says Vasconcelos, acknowledging the ever-changing nature of her customers needs, we continue to invest on growing our tech, so we can develop further algorithms.It was a challenge to grow robust datasets from local soil and microclimate conditions, but generalizing our algorithms to support inputs that comes from different sources, sensors and providers, led us to create high precision algorithms for irrigation, 7-day weather forecast and coffee rust prediction.Agrosmarts vision: to conquer Latin America, and beyondBut what helps the app stand out from the rest in Latin America? It reminds us at AFN of apps like Impact Terras Golden Paddy in Myanmar and Indias Gramophone, although there are many more.A low barrier to entry is also one way to keep a farm app sticky Impact Terras founder told us a couple of weeks ago.With a presence in nine countries and counting, Agrosmarts plans to use the Series A capital to expand the product portfolio and catapult the company into the rest of the Americas.My vision is for us to become the largest digital agriculture platform in Latin America by integrating the whole food supply chain, says Vasconcelos, who started her business crunching numbers on her fathers farm back in 2014, in order to help him make better decisions.The expansion includes launching new features, such as farmer insurance programs in case of crop disease. She wants to tap their expertise as Agrosmart reviews the sensoring part of their business to improve efficiencies in production, imports, and exports.While Vasconcelos has no plans to raise more funding until the end of 2020, like many entrepreneurs, she will continue to eye out for investment opportunities or growth acceleration on a case-by-case basis.AFN is keeping close tabs on Brazil and last year partnered with the countrys leading agtech VC SP Ventures to release an agtech startup market map detailing some 338 startups in the ecosystem; theres likely more today and were looking forward to an update (hint hint Francisco!