Precision Agriculture platform Fasal raises $1.6M from Omnivore and Wavemaker

Fasal, a precision agriculture platform, announced a raise of USD 1.6 million from Omnivore and Wavemaker Partners. Other investors participating in the round include Mount Parker Ventures and Animoca from Hong Kong, as well as Mistletoe from Japan, via their Gastrotope accelerator. Existing investors Zeroth, an AI-ML accelerator, and Artesian Ventures from Australia also participated in the round.

The newly raised fund will be used for building AI capabilities for each horticulture value chain where the company is focused. It also plans to launch a lower-cost and instantly installable version of its field sensor array shortly. Finally, the company will scale up its B2B2F (business-to-business-to-farmer) sales force, which will partner with aggregators, exporters, and processors in each horticulture value chain to access their networks of farmers.

Fasal is an AI-powered IoT-SaaS platform for horticulture, which captures real-time data on growing conditions from on-farm sensors and delivers farm-specific, crop-specific actionable advisories to farmers via mobile in vernacular languages. Fasal’s field sensor array can be installed by farmers in less than 15 minutes and measures multiple dynamic variables, including micro-climate, soil, and crop conditions. Fasal leverages machine learning to transform this field sensor data into farm-level predictions, anticipating various risks while helping horticulture farmers to reduce input costs by optimizing crop protection, irrigation, and crop nutrition.

Founded in 2018 by Ananda Prakash Verma and Shailendra Tiwari, Fasal focuses on high-value, export-oriented horticulture crops where farmers are concerned with maximizing produce quality and minimizing chemical residues. Some of the horticulture value chains where Fasal is currently working include grapes, pomegranate, mango, citrus, tea, coffee, and chili. Fasal is presently operating in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh, but plans to expand pan-India and also enter select markets across Southeast Asia.

According to Ananda Prakash Verma, Co-Founder & CEO of Fasal, “We are on a mission to help horticulture farmers make data-driven, logical decisions and shift farming to autopilot mode. Farmers using Fasal are seeing major increases in profitability and huge water savings, even in the driest parts of Maharashtra. Ultimately, we will become a full-stack platform for horticulture farmers, and we are excited to partner with Omnivore and Wavemaker to help make that happen.”

Commenting on the announcement, Mark Kahn, Managing Partner of Omnivore, stated that, “Ananda, Shailendra, and the team at Fasal are building a strong agritech startup aiming to reach the most progressive horticulture farmers in India and Southeast Asia. We plan to help Fasal accelerate the growth of their B2B2F business model by connecting them to leading agribusinesses across the region and onboarding the farmers they source from.”

Also commenting on the fundraise, Paul Santos, Managing Partner of Wavemaker Partners, stated that, “We are very excited to be investing in Ananda and Shailendra from Fasal as they build a world-class solution for two core problems for horticulture farmers: managing irrigation and diseases/pests. These problems plague Southeast Asian farmers just as much as they do in India, where the team has already seen early traction. We look forward to helping Fasal enter this region.”

IC Universal Legal’s Chennai team, led by Sameena Chatrapathy, managed the transaction.

India’s agritech sector has seen unprecedented growth in recent years, as farmers and agribusiness companies adopt innovative technologies to improve their profitability, sustainability, and resilience. According to a recent Nasscom report, India’s agritech sector has received more than $248 million funding as of June 2019, scaling up almost 300% as compared to last year.