Agtech Funding Sheet: Clear Labs Raises $13m Series B from GV, Khosla, Soros-Linked Fund Invests in Arya Collateral, more

Clear Labs, a food analytics startup, raised a $13 million Series B from a series of venture capital heavyweights including Google’s venture arm GV, early-stage and angel funders Felicis Ventures, Khosla Ventures, and Chinese internet, mobile, and telecom giant Tencent. The company has created a genomic data platform that could help stop foodborne illness outbreaks before they wreak havoc on consumers. Using the same technology applied in human clinical trials, the company is also collaborating with major food brands to help test food products to see how accurate their ingredient lists are.

Apeel Sciences, a Santa Barbara company producing a shelf-enhancing film to apply to fresh produce, raised a $33 million Series B with SV powerhouse VC Andreessen Horowitz and impact and sustainability investors DBL Investors leading the round. Multi-sector family office Tao Capital Partners, multi-stage food and ag investor S2G Ventures, plant-based products backer Powerplant Ventures, tech-focused Upfront Ventures, and existing personal investors John Greathouse, and Apeel’s COO Jason Spievak joined the round. Read more in our story here.

Ynsect, a French robotics-enabled insect farming startup aiming to replace fishmeal, raised a $15.2 million Series B led by Future Positive Capital and Bpifrance Ecotechnologies with participation from existing investors Emertec, Demeter Partners, VisVires Capital, New Protein Capital and Business Angels. Read more in our recent story.

Raptor Maps, a Massachusetts-based company creating drone-enabled tech platform for farmers, received an undisclosed investment from Commercial Drone Fund, which was launched by drone software company Airware. Read more about the deal in our recent story.

Arya Collateral, a post-harvest agricultural value chain service for smallholder farmers, raised an undisclosed investment from Aspada Investment Company, an impact fund funded in part by the Soros Economic Development Fund (SEDF). Based in Noida, India, Arya intends to expand its reach in primary markets that are not currently served by existing companies, offering warehousing services as well as short-term financing through partnerships with banks and Non-Bank Financial Corporations.

Ember Technologies, a company aiming to revolutionize how people around the world eat and drink, closed a $3.78 million venture round with a long list of celeb investors including, pro athletes Prince Amukamara, Ted Lilly, and Ndamukong Suh, and musicians Alex Pall, Demi Lovato, Joe Jonas, and Nick Jonas. Its premier product is a coffee mug that will keep your beverage at your perfect temperature for two hours or all day when used with the company’s charging coaster.

EcoVadis, a Paris-based company that allows companies to assess the environmental and social performance of their suppliers, closed a $31.8 million venture round with Partech Ventures, a firm specializing in US and European investments. Its platform covers 150 sectors across 100 countries and provides ratings, easy to monitor tools, and risk management services for companies interested in assessing their global supply chains.

urDoorstep, an online hypermarket servicing India, raised $1.4 million in bridge funding, only six months after its prior bridge round. Half the funding came from Lakshmi Vilas Bank while the other half was contributing by an unnamed high net-worth individual. In July, the company’s $300k bridge round came from CP Murali, the former COO of telecom software firm Aricent.

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