March 14, 2018

Agrofy, an Argentinian ag-focused ecommerce platform startup, has announced the successful raising of $6 million through an oversubscribed Series A.

The round was led by Sao Paulo Ventures, Brazil’s most active agtech venture capital fund, and included Bunge, Syngenta, leading pan-Latin American technology accelerator Endeavor Catalyst, high net-worth South American agribusiness investors, and funds provided by existing investors including Cresud, the largest farming company in Latin America.

Co-founded in November 2015 by internet entrepreneurs Alejandro Larosa and Maximiliano Landrein, Agrofy is the fastest growing agribusiness ecommerce marketplace in South America.

This is the second such venture for Larosa and Landrein. In 1999 the pair founded FYO.com with the intention of creating an online ag retail site, however, Cresud acquired a majority stake in the venture which evolved to become a Latin America-focused grain marketplace.

Through Agrofy’s platform, the startup offers both growers and agribusiness operators a range of services including transaction hosting, sales lead generation in a diverse range of categories including inputs, machinery, farmland, equipment, insurance and vehicles, as well as logistics and financial services. Since its launch, 5,000 companies, including multinational players, have signed with the company listing more than 65,000 products.

“We realized that the agriculture sector was becoming increasingly digital and it was the right time to launch an online marketplace offering a broad set of e-commerce services, tailored to the needs of the merchant and their channel partners, which provides a complimentary route for connecting farmers and suppliers” said Maximiliano Landrein, Agrofy CEO and co-founder.

E-Disruption

What drew Sao Paulo Ventures to the investment, which is the fund’s first outside of Brazil, was the belief that the internet will play a key role in new channels of disruption for agribusiness, according to a LinkdIn post by Francisco Jardin, partner at SP Ventures, reports StartAgro.

Despite the fact that agriculture remains firmly rooted in historically traditional relationships, Agrofy is proving to be successful in expanding the sector’s vision beyond established supply and demand channels.

“This is our first investment outside of Brazil and we want to make it clear that we will seek out the most brilliant agribusiness entrepreneurs wherever they are,” noted Jardim. “We will not respect geographical boundaries. We will also see more global blue chip investors from AgTech global, such as Syngenta Ventures and Bunge Ventures, investing in the region. This crop of small agro technology companies is transforming our agriculture. “

Syngenta, which has been scouting the ecommerce category, also believes that the time has come for the intersection of the internet and agribusiness.

“Our team feels that the community of growers is ready to embrace using the internet for agribusiness transactions just as they have become comfortable with consumer goods and banking internet platforms,” David Pierson, managing director of Syngenta Ventures, told Agfunder.

Agrofy in 2018

With this latest funding behind them, Agrofy plans to enrich its platform, building in new functionality and digital services that can help improve its users’ e-commerce strategies. The company is planning to establish dedicated online payment solutions for agribusiness this year, and also has six new agribusiness categories in the pipeline, which once launched, will bring the platform’s total to 15.

Additionally, through this funding deal, Jardim will assume a seat on the Agrofy board of directors.

“This is the most successful funding round for a LATAM AgTech firm this past year, not only due to its size, but also because of the broad strategic value of the new investors,” said Jardim. “We are very excited to be a part of developing this complimentary channel to the market for growers.”

-Lynda Kiernan