Bengaluru: Agriculture-technology is emerging as one of the hottest sectors for investors this year, primarily for the mountains of data these startups are able to harvest. Leading venture capital firms including Accel India and SAIF Partners are evaluating several agritech firms to invest in, according to entrepreneurs and investors. IDG Ventures-backed Agrostar, a platform for farmers to procure raw materials, is in advanced talks with Accel to raise $10-12 million.

The company, which raised $4 million in 2015, has more than 5,00,000 farmers using its mobile application. “The funds raised will be focused on expansion plans and to improve technology in terms of making the app easier to use for farmers,” said a person familiar with the discussions. “It is likely that Agrostar is in talks with an international investor.” Goldfarm, an aggregation platform for farm equipment, is in preliminary talks to raise $3-5 million from SAIF Partners.

“The funds raised will be focused on technological upgradations,” said Abhilash Tirupathy, Co-Founder of Goldfarm, although he declined to give more details on the fund raising. Crofarm, an agricultural supply chain technology startup that raised $1.5 million last year, is looking to raise $7 million between April and September to allow farmers to take their produce beyond Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.

Accel and SAIF Partners did not immediately reply to queries emailed on Sunday afternoon. Investors such as Omnivore Partners and Aspada Investments, that are focused on the agri-tech sector, are also seeing interest in their portfolio companies from venture capital and private equity investors.

According to Kushal Agrawal, partner at Aspada Investments, European family management and other such funds are likely to consider investing in India as many of these have capital allocated for investment in agriculture in emerging markets.

Three Omnivore portfolio companies are in the market to raise money. Stellapps Technologies, an Internet-of-Things platform in the dairy sector, is in talks to raise $8-9 million; solar solutions startup Ecozen is seeking to raise $5 million; and YCook, an organic, ready-to-cook processed foods startup, aims to raise $5 million this year.

“Data is going to be a big investment within agri-tech. Startups are using drones or tractor-based solutions to get data on field, and that’s definitely a hot area,” said Jinesh Shah, founding partner at Omnivore. “It will be a combination of weather and agricultural data to gauge the risks of the farming sector. This could be a game-changer this year.Another area that is likely to see traction is agri-rent equipment services,” he said.

That said, longer gestation periods, that are characteristic of the sector, remain a worry for investors. “Returns cannot be guaranteed within a specific period of time and could take up to 5 years or even more,” said Agrawal of Aspada Investments.

Source: Economic Times