BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN – Local startup Agrome IQ has raised a “six figure” pre-Series A funding to help its regional expansion and product development.
The agricultural business intelligence company — which provides data analytics to farmers to improve production — will set up their base in Singapore, said founder and CEO Dr Vanessa Teo, while focusing on growth in the Malaysian and Indonesian markets.
“With the investment from Cerana Capital, [it allows us to reach] 50 different distributors in Singapore that would buy farmers’ products on our platform,” she said.
“We connect the farmers that we trained and worked with to guaranteed market access… We create that ecosystem for the farmers.”
While the exact amount of investment was not disclosed, Teo said the funds would also be used to expand their team. Cerana Capital is an investment firm based in Singapore with a focus on growing Southeast Asian companies.
The startup on Friday also announced the appointment of a new chief technology officer, Michael Knott.
Founded in 2017, Agrome IQ supports digitisation of farm management through a mobile application with real-time support services.
Teo said the second version of the app will be launched two months and will enable “community-driven decision making for farmers” within similar geographic regions.
“What we are trying to build is not something that caters only to a specific country, but something that will serve every smallholder farmer in the ASEAN region.
“We are excited because we are finally able to develop the platform in the way we intended, and expand our operation team in Brunei to help more farmers start digitising the farm management process,” she said.