KisanHub, a Cambridge-based startup, has raised $1m in funding to continue developing its agricultural technology enterprise platform.
The round was led by Notion Capital, a VC firm focused on high potential cloud computing and SaaS businesses, with participation from NIAB, an international center for plant research, crop evaluation and agronomy.
Speaking about the investment, KisanHub COO and co-founder Giles Barker, said: ‘’There is a growing need for solutions to help farmers deliver sustainable growth. This investment will give us the ability to enhance and deliver our offering to a greater number of these farmers both in the UK and internationally.”
The company, which leverages big data, cloud computing and machine learning, will also use the money to support further research to enable farmers and agricultural enterprises to make informed decisions.
Patrick Norris, principal at Notion Capital, commented on his decision to invest in the startup: “KisanHub’s ability to leverage the cloud to combine disparate and complex data sets, to then provide actionable intelligence to large scale agricultural enterprises via a SaaS platform, positions it uniquely in Europe to transform the way global agricultural enterprises make decisions to increase yield and reduce costs.
“We are very excited to be backing an outstanding team and we look forward to working with them to build a very successful business,” added Norris.
Dr Tina Barsby, CEO at NIAB, said: “ We have seen the potential in combining our strength in crop science with KisanHub’s expertise in assimilating, aggregating and visualising datasets; from twitter feeds to weather observations and on-field sensor data.
“The evidence from this practical experience underpins NIAB’S belief in KisanHub’s potential and the decision to invest,” concluded Barsby.