June 3, 2019

by Lynda Kiernan

Tel Aviv-based agtech startup Agritask has raised $6 million from the InsuResiliance Investment Fund, an investment vehicle established for the German government by KfW Development Bank and managed by Swiss impact investment manager BlueOrchard Finance. This round represents the largest funding for the company to-date.

Through its one-of-a-kind agronomic geo-management platform, Agritask’s goal is to help players along the entire agricultural value chain from large-scale farmers to insurers, by integrating ag data hardware and software which can have a positive benefit for those making agronomic and agro-economic decisions.

Because of its unique system configuration, the Agritask platform easily adapts to each client’s specific work methods eliminating any lengthy training, and therefore reduces time and cost of adoption at scale. Serving large-scale growers, ag insurance companies, governments, and regional extension projects, Agritask’s ‘One platform – One database’ system offers the ability to upgrade agronomic visibility and real-time decision making which helps with risk management.

“We see technology as a key enabler to make climate insurance affordable for populations with low income and small-scale farmers in particular. Agritask has developed a unique offering to digitize agriculture insurance and take risk management to a new level,” said Ernesto Costa, senior vice president Private Equity at BlueOrchard. “The company is uniquely positioned to capture the opportunity presented by 250 million under-insured small-scale farmers in developing countries.”

Already serving clients in more than 15 countries, including small and large scale farmers, food producers, government extension agencies, and insurers in mostly emerging and frontier markets, Agritask plans to use the funds gained through this round to scale up its global expansion across a range of agricultural segments, increase its reach to small scale farmers, and to foster the growth of global agricultural insurance markets.

“Market penetration of agricultural insurance remains small across the globe, especially in developing countries,” said Ofir Ardon, CEO, Agritask. “To a large extent this is a result of product design which often relies on limited data availability and visibility into the ongoing agricultural and climatic risks, which is exactly what we can resolve.”

Based in Luxembourg, InsuResilience Investment Fund was launched on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) with the goal to contribute to the adaption to climate change by improving access to and the use of insurance in developing countries. The fund has a particular focus on helping low-income, micro, or small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) when faced with extreme weather events.

Agritask’s platform, when used by agricultural insurers, can revolutionize their ability to determine accurate risk analysis. This in turn helps them develop and manage more advanced insurance offerings, achieve deeper insurance penetration to new and underserved markets, and lower operation costs.

“We are more than excited to partner with the InsuResilience Investment Fund and BlueOrchard as we see strong synergies between Agritask’s deep technological know-how and their profound knowledge and network in the financial and agricultural insurance industry.”