Fundings in Brief: Agri PE Fund Invests in Fruit & Veg, Drone Service Raises $2m

Agri PE Fund Blue Road Invests in Fruit & Veg Producer

Blue Road Capital, an agribusiness private equity fund, which counts pension funds such as New Mexico Educational Retirement board and Merced County as its investors, has acquired a stake in global fruit and vegetable producer Vanguard International Group. The capital will be used to make strategic acquisitions into fruit and vegetable production assets globally. Headquartered in Washington State, Vanguard has operations across Latin America, China, Southeast Asia, Europe and Africa.

Austin, Texas-based HUVR, the drone-based data analytics company, has raised $2 million in seed capital from a group of angel investors including Central Texas Angel Network, Houston Angel Network and the Texas HALO Fund. The company, which aims to provide a drones data collection service for clients to help with business problems, will use the proceeds to hire a pilot, buy drone deployment vehicles and develop its cloud-based services. The business sees agriculture as one of four focus sectors and is currently in consultation with a rice farming business in the U.S. It’s also targeting wind farms, solar farms and oil & gas industry.

Indian Ag E-Commerce Startup AgroStar Raises $4m

AgroStar, an Indian company selling agricultural inputs directly to farmers through their mobile phones, has raised $4 million in venture capital funding. IDG Ventures India participated alongside existing investor Aavishkaa, an early stage VC firm. Farmers can buy seeds, nutrients, crop protection, and hardware from a variety of national and multinational brands on the AgroStar platform. The company will use the proceeds to expands its reach into new Indian states.

Have any news, tips or want to write a guest article? Email [email protected]

— Visit AgFunder.com for agtech investment opportunities —