AgNext Technologies said Thursday that it had raised a total of $21 million in Series A funding.
Alpha Wave Incubation (AWI) fund, which is backed by DisruptAD and managed by Falcon Edge, led the Series A funding in which existing investors Omnivore and Kalaari Capital also participated.
AgNext is also AWI’s first investment in India’s booming agritech sector. In this round, AgNext has also delivered a 5X exit to a-IDEA NAARM, India’s first agribusiness incubator, managed by the National Academy of Agricultural Research Management (NAARM).
AgNext solves the quality analysis problem through its proprietary, in-house technology products. Through a mix of AI, ML, Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced data analysis, AgNext provides rapid food quality assessment through its full-stack 'Qualix' platform. By delivering a real-time accuracy of up to 99 per cent, AgNext helps bring trust, speed, and transparency to the agriculture value chain.
AgNext is the only player with a physical as well as chemical analysis solution applicable across a broad basket of commodities, including grains, spices, tea, milk, and animal feed. The company has collected over 2 million food samples across multiple categories over the last four years, creating unique and massive AI datasets. AgNext initiated the commercialization of its products earlier this year. With a 100% pilot to paid customer conversion, the company boasts of top-tier clients such as ITC, Godrej, NAFED, among others..
To enter newer geographies
With this new capital infusion, AgNext will enter newer commodities, strengthen its pan-India presence and expand to international markets such as the Middle East, Europe, and South Asia. The funds will also be used to develop its tech platform Qualix, to enable quality-driven trade transactions across the food value chains.
Additionally, the company will establish a new office in Abu Dhabi for deeper penetration into the targeted markets by diversifying its commodities portfolio and accelerating innovation to make food trade better, fairer, and more secure in the new geographies.
Quality-based food trade
“As first mover in the agricultural deep-tech space, we have established market leadership in India through our novel AI-based technologies that assure quality-based food trade across value chains. The deep-tech enabled value created by AgNext for our partners has been instrumental in driving our growth story. Today, we are ready to scale our operations globally and delighted to partner with Alpha Wave Incubation (AWI), to accelerate our R&D initiatives and build a robust international presence.” said Taranjeet Singh Bhamra, Founder & CEO, AgNext in a statement.
Anirudh Singh, Managing Director at Alpha Wave Incubation (AWI) fund said “With its unique deep-tech solutions, AgNext is poised to transform the agri value chain at a global scale. We were very impressed by the depth of technological innovation shown by the company in building its AI platform.”
“Further, the quality of clients and traction shown by the company on its commercialization journey is a strong validation of the company's technology product suite. We believe AgNext will be a global leader in the agri-tech space and look forward to working with them,”Singh added.