aWhere, a Denver, CO based big data analytics company focused on the Ag industry, Elixir Capital, a private equity fund based in Silicon Valley and AgFunder, a New York and San Francisco-based online investment marketplace for agriculture and agtech opportunities, today announce the successful 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 into their growing operations.
“aWhere’s big data platform brings tremendous value across the agricultural value chain,” said John Corbett Ph.D., President and CEO of aWhere. “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 interest in data collection, organization and applications for agtech has 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 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.
“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.” said Abrar Hussain, Managing Director of Elixir Capital. “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.
“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,” said Rob Leclerc, AgFunder’s CEO.
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.
