As reported by business daily Vedomosti, the Dutch fund Rabo Frontier Ventures and the Greek fund VentureFriends have been the main contributors to a $5 million of funding for Russian agritech startup Agro.Club. Neither the respective contributions of the investors nor the terms of the deals were disclosed.
Founded in 2018, Agro.Club is a digital marketplace that connects growers, their suppliers and crop purchasers into a single network.” The startup claims to serve currently some 17,000 Russian farmers.
“Trust between farmers and a new buyer can often be a tricky issue,” said Agro.Club founder and CEO Egor Kirin last year. “Will the farmer deliver on time? Will the grain buyer pay in full? So Agro.Club bridges the trust gap by facilitating all payments, guaranteeing the quality, and handling delivery.”
In addition, the company offers a variety of OT tools for business analytics, order management and e-commerce, marketing and networking, enabling its customers to optimise operations “‘throughout the whole agriculture value chain, from seed to sale.”
While keeping its main operations in Russia, Agro.Club moved its headquarters to New York City in order to conquer the US market.
The fresh funding will be used to penetrate new markets: this year, Agro.Club has plans come to Spain and the UK, while eyeing Argentine, Brazil, Hungary and Poland as further steps.
In a previous round in June 2020, Agro.Club raised $1.5 million from Elevator Ventures, Raiffeisen Bank International’s corporate fund, and Speedinvest, a major Berlin-based VC fund.
