aWhere, a Denver-based data analytics company focused on the Agriculture industry, Elixir Capital, a private equity fund based in Silicon Valley and AgFunder, a New York and San Francisco-based investment crowdfunding platform, announced on Monday (September 8th) the successfully close of aWhere’s oversubscribed $7 million round.
The investment will help aWhere bring its data analytics platform to international markets and help farmers increase yields and profitability as they incorporate cutting-edge technology in their growing operations.
President and CEO of aWhere, John Corbett Ph.D., stated, “aWhere’s big data platform brings tremendous value across the agriculture value chain. To the world’s 570 million farmers, we offer access to down-scaled, localized weather driven content. These data then aggregated over trade areas and across the value chain provide insight from corporate planning to food security and policy.”
Since the 2013 acquisition of California-based Climate Corp by Monsanto, investor interested in data collection, organization and applications for agtech ha soared. aWhere has developed powerful tools that provide field-level, actionable data such as weather and climate information, agronomic recommendations, pest and disease alerts, and other information that can make the practice of farming more efficient. aWhere’s data is tailored to be the location and needs of the individual farmer and has significantly increased yields for rice, soybean and maize. The company is targeting rice and palm oil crops as it expands into Southeast Asia.
Managing Director of Elixir Capital, Abrar Hussain, noted, “Our investment in aWhere highlights how we seek to apply technology innovations to underserved markets. Outside of North America and parts of Western Europe, the application of big data analytics to agriculture is almost unknown. aWhere’s entry into Asia allows one of the largest agricultural production regions in the world to take advantage of the power of data analytics to increase yield, efficiently allocate resources and significantly lower the industry’s environmental impact.”
“AgFunder was an important partner — although there are numerous crowdfunding sites which focus on small investments from individual contributors, AgFunder’s platform proved itself to be an excellent source for institutional investors like Elixir to find growth-stage investment opportunities.”
Elixir Capital is a private equity fund based in Silicon Valley with offices in Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta. Elixir invests in growth stage opportunities that bridge the U.S. to Southeast Asia. The fund is actively looking for investments in growth-stage companies.
Rob Leclerc, AgFunder’s CEO added, “This deal demonstrates how an online investment marketplace with curated investment opportunities in the agriculture sector can help investors identify new opportunities in this emerging asset class while bridging geographical boundaries.”
AgFunder is one of a number of online investment marketplaces that have launched since the passage of the JOBS Act, which expands the opportunities for companies to market to Accredited Investors. AgFunder is the only investment marketplace dedicated to the ag vertical. Since AgFunder launched its first campaign in February 2014, listed companies have raised over $10M in committed and closed capital. Its members have over $800M in investable capital and the platform has attracted over $1.3 billion in potential deal flow.
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