The Venture Codex

Participated · Seed · Jan 2018

KisanHub offers a ‘seed to sale’ connectivity platform that combines crop intelligence with supply-chain intelligence to ensure farm yields reach processors and retailers in good condition. The platform integrates data from crops, stores, load dispatches, satellites and field sensors to support growers, field staff, procurement managers and management teams in decision-making. Target customers are agricultural enterprises that supply retailers and processors and that work with networks of contract farmers or own farmland. Sustainability is a central focus for the company; global brewer ABInBev has implemented the platform to help meet its 2025 sustainability goals. The company plans to use new funding to grow its business in the UK and Europe and to strengthen links with local and national governments. KisanHub was founded in 2013 and has previously raised a £1.75M seed round in 2018 and just over £3M in a Series A last year. KisanHub builds an agricultural and supply-chain data platform that uses big data analytics, cloud computing and machine learning to process satellite imagery, weather stations, soil sensors and other sources. Its product offers yield predictions, pesticide application monitoring, integrated market data, compliance information and crop protection recommendations to help agronomists, suppliers, processors and retailers manage contracts and decision-making. Rather than going direct to farmers, KisanHub targets agriculture enterprises and integrates with customers' existing software and Excel systems, while enterprise partners roll the technology out to growers. The company sources data via partnerships — including Planet Labs for satellite imagery — and integrates public data rather than building its own sensors. Founded in 2013 as a Cambridge Judge Business School spin-out, KisanHub operates in the UK and has an office in Pune, India, and works with partners such as AB InBev on programs like Smart Barley. Management says the £3.4m Series A will be used to continue platform development and implement the solution across multiple geographies, focusing on consolidating positions in the UK and India and meeting demand from a major undisclosed global food and beverage partner. KisanHub provides a Crop Intelligence Platform that leverages big data, cloud computing and machine learning to bring data-led decision-making to both producers and suppliers. The company supplies data to upstream and downstream members of the food supply chain to prove food provenance and increase production efficiency from farmer to retailer. KisanHub currently serves a user base of over 3,000 enterprises and farmers. Founded by Dr Sachin Shende (CEO) and Giles Barker (COO), the company is based in Cambridge, UK. It intends to use the new funding to continue development of its technology and to expand its sales team and customer success functions. The articles do not disclose prior financing details beyond this round. KisanHub has built a cloud-based enterprise farming platform that blends diverse datasets—farm, crop, operations, weather, satellite, commodities, machinery and sensor data—to generate actionable, data-driven decision points for growers. The platform is intended to help forecast pest and disease risk, optimize irrigation timing and volumes, and schedule field operations based on predicted weather, with the aim of boosting yields while reducing inputs such as pesticides and water. Typical customers are enterprises that source produce from networks of farmers and supply processors or supermarkets; end users include individual farmers and enterprise staff. KisanHub reports a user base of over 1,000 farmers and multiple large enterprises. The company says it will use new funding for R&D, sales and customer support to expand its offerings and commercial footprint. KisanHub is partnering with NIAB to develop technical solutions for farmers and farming enterprises and to leverage NIAB’s crop research expertise.

Led · Seed · Oct 2017

Cygnetise provides a cloud-based SaaS solution that uses blockchain to make authorised signatory management for operations and finance departments more efficient, transparent, and secure. The platform reduces the risk of fraud and the cost to businesses and claims to save companies over 90% of the time spent on manual and paper-based tasks. Cygnetise counts PWC, Societe Generale, Willis Towers Watson, Charles Schwab, ADNOC, and SEI among its customers. The start-up has raised £2.5 million in an oversubscribed Pre-Series A round led by UK investment syndicate Adjuvo, with participation from Massive and existing backers. The funding will be used to expand its sales and technology teams and to support growth across sectors and internationally. CEO Steve Pomfret said the investment enables the company to move into its next expansion phase and accelerate growth. Cygnetise provides a UI-backed platform that creates a digital directory of authorised signatories, with each signatory assigned an electronic profile and access restricted to current employees. The service runs on a private blockchain combined with encryption software to reduce errors and potential fraud from manually maintained signatory lists. The company launched its platform in April 2017 after incorporating in May 2016 and counts clients in insurance, fund management and legal sectors. A recent product update added a self-service model allowing users to sign up without a sales representative. Cygnetise says it will use the latest funding to rapidly grow national and international sales. Founder and CEO Stephen Pomfret is quoted describing the product as the first UK-based corporate blockchain application aimed at modernising a paper-based process.

Participated · Series A · Apr 2017

LVH develops and operates fintech businesses, leveraging investment researchers, ETF experts and technologists to offer investment and technology solutions focused on ETFs. It provides research, investment solutions, and software services and established 55 Capital in late 2015 to offer ETF portfolios to individuals, advisors, and institutional investors. The company intends to use the new financing to accelerate growth and innovation at 55 Capital and to build new businesses offering a suite of fintech solutions to enterprises and institutions. LVH was founded by Lee Kranefuss and Dr. Vinay Nair; Bruce Lavine serves as 55 Capital’s CEO. The firm has employees and offices in New York, San Francisco, and Mumbai.