Agrithmics becomes first Lankan agri-tech start up with over $ 8 million valuation within 3 years
Daily FT: A leader in Sri Lanka’s Agritech field, Agrithmics Ltd, has rebranded its global corporate identity as Cultive8 Technologies, to facilitate its long term expansion strategy that will see it go beyond Sri Lanka, into South Asia and Southeast Asia.
This also follows Agrithmics recently raising Pre-Series A Funding, valued at $ 1.75 million, from BRAC Osiris Impact Ventures, leading to its post money valuation of $ 8.25 million.
Launched in April 2020, and backed by the Digital Innovation Fund, BOV Capital, Striders Global Investment and Ataraxia Capital Partners; Agrithmics began its Sri Lankan operations by delivering affordable technology solutions for Agri businesses to digitise their procurement and payment automation. To date, Agrithmics has worked closely with some of the leading players in the tea industry along with other market leaders in the Agriculture space.
Further, Agrithmics has empowered plantation companies to digitise their activity in the field, even allowing them in some cases to manage all operations remotely.
Also noteworthy, Agrithmics developed an ERP solution focused on agriculture that enables cloud-based management of plantation services, private tea factories, as well as other agriculture-related activities, so companies can remotely manage their operations while increasing efficiencies.
BOV Capital Managing Partner Prajeeth Balasubramaniam said: “Agritech is a high potential field in Sri Lanka, while also being vitally important for our country’s future. The Agrithmics team has proven their ability to rapidly scale in the local sector and we look forward to seeing them leverage their Sri Lankan ingenuity to succeed in their ambitious plans to expand across the Asian region.”
BRAC Osiris Impact Ventures’ new investment into Agrithmics has facilitated the moving of its corporate headquarters to Singapore, along with the opening of its first overseas operations in Bangladesh, where it expects to deploy its full suite of technology and business solutions. Cultive8’s overall plan is to connect the entire stakeholder network within the Agriculture ecosystem, from input companies, to farmers, aggregators and buyers, all under one platform.
Agrithmics Founder/CEO Prashanth Premakumar, who now also takes on the Group CEO role, wherein he will direct regional expansion, said: “Cultive8 is perfectly positioned to take our locally developed Agritech – supply chain expertise across Asia. As we have already started taking our first steps into Bangladesh with the help of our new investors, we set our sights on the larger potential offered by Asian agricultural markets, from where we foresee a lot of our future growth emanating.”
OSL take:
Sri Lanka’s agriculture sector is fast becoming a hotspot for business/investment opportunities. The government of Sri Lanka is focused on developing the country’s agriculture sector to a level where the country is food secure and self sufficient in all key produce while also looking at promoting export crops. The many trade agreements as well as trade concessions enjoyed by the country have also helped attract investments to the export agriculture sector. The growth and profits recorded by local companies engaged in the agriculture sector is indicative of the growing business potential in the agriculture sector. However, in order to achieve Sri Lanka’s targets in the agriculture industry, foreign businesses/investors could look at opportunities in providing seeds, fertilizer, technical expertise, equipment and all other requirements. They could also look at forming partnerships or joint ventures with local businesses engaged in the agriculture sector.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/20230624/Z_6 |