Aussie agtech startup AgriWebb has announced a ‘small’ $10 million funding injection as it gears up for a large Series C round further down the track.
The livestock management platform allows farmers and ranchers to digitise their records and land management. The data leads to increased oversight on herds, as well as increased productivity and sustainability.
AgriWebb was first developed in 2014 by fifth generation Australian farmers, Justin Webb, Kevin Baum and John Fargher. The startup claims to currently have 16,000 users globally, with its platform used to manage roughly 19 million animals across 136 million acres of land.
Some of the features on the platform include visual mapping of farms, water monitoring, feed inventory, animal activity and biosecurity plans. It also offers robust herd record keeping, including births, movement and tagging.
The additional $10 million in funding has come primarily from existing investors: The Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), Grosvenor Food & AgTech and Telus. They were joined by two new investors, iSelect Fund and Germin8 Ventures.
Webb told the Australian Financial Review the startup approached investors for a top up after the downturn over the market in 2022. The last couple of quarters have been particularly bad for startup funding in Australia, though there was a turnaround in September.
He also revealed the company is looking towards a big Series C funding round.
“We have 24 months of runway now, and weโll use the funding to continue to expand and improve our product line,” Webb said.
AgriWebb received a massive $30 million in Series B funding back in January, 2021. At the time it had a valuation of $100 million and it is said to have a “marked increase” since then. The company also revealed its user base has grown by 67% since its Series B.
Back in August 2018, the company raised $14 million in a Series A round and acquired UK livestock software company, FarmWizard.
Sustainable farming has been a core mission for AgriWebb since its inception. Previous funding from the CEFC’s Clean Energy Fund went towards tracking the methane emissions of livestock and carbon sequestration in soil.
“Ultimately, weโve got to feed 10 billion people by 2050, weโve got to do so by not by cultivating any more land โ weโve already done that โ and we need to reduce methane emissions,โ Webb told SmartCompany in 2021.
“Thatโs the productivity problem, and technology is box-seated for productivity problems.”
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