We are delighted that KisanHub, an early stage company that presented at our first Pollinator meeting, has raised $1 million. The company already has a vibrant user base with over a thousand farmers and many large enterprises.
KisanHub has developed a farming enterprise software platform that makes sense of disparate operational and agronomic data. It is able to simplify complex decisions to help make agriculture more predictable and profitable, moving farming enterprises from intuition-based decision-making to one that is based on objective analysis and helping farmers to grow more and use less inputs.
The $1 million seed round was led by Notion Capital with contributions that included NIAB, a current customer and strategic partner.
KisanHub is helping to drive a technology-driven shift in agriculture, both in terms of the growing of produce as well as supply chain management. Giles Barker, COO and Co-Founder, says: “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.”
Patrick Norris of Notion Capital comments that KisanHub has a unique proposition and it is well positioned to transform the way global agricultural enterprises make decisions to increase yield and reduce costs. He says: “We are very excited to be backing an outstanding team and we look forward to working with them to build a very successful business.”
For NIAB KisanHub offers the potential to help it deliver solutions to inform crop management and business processes in the agricultural and horticultural sectors. CEO Dr Tina Barsby says: “Evidence from practical experience has underpinned NIAB’S belief in KisanHub’s potential and the decision to invest.”
Dr Belinda Clarke, Director of Agri-Tech East, says: “KisanHub has benefited from support of the cluster, and there is an increasing pipeline of new agri-tech business ideas developing with the support of this unique ecosystem – as was demonstrated recently with the GROW business plan competition. This makes the Start-Up Showcase at REAP all the more exciting and a highlight of the year.”
Giles Barker (fourth from left) attended the official launch of the Eastern AgriGate Research Hub, at Hasse Fen near Soham, during Agri-Tech Week 2015:
Andrew Burgess (Head of Agriculture, Produce World); Mark Pendlington (Chairman, New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership and Group Director, Anglian Water); Tina Barsby (CEO NIAB); Giles Barker (COO and co-Founder, KisanHub); Ben Tam (Innovation Programme Manager, Anglian Water);Belinda Clarke (Director, Agri-Tech East); George Freeman MP; Martin Lutman (Programme Manager, Eastern Agri-Tech Growth Initiative); Mark Reeve (Chairman, Greater Cambridge / Greater Peterborough Local Enterprise Partnership) Effie Mutasa-Göttgens (Project Manager, AgriGate [NIAB])