Absolute raises $100 million in funding led by Sequoia Capital, Alpha Wave, Tiger Global

Mumbai: Agritech startup Absolute has raised $100 million across recent funding rounds from Sequoia Capital India, Alpha Wave Global and Tiger Global.

The company said it is valued at approximately $500 million.

ET was the first to report about its fund-raising plans on November 5 last year.


Last year, Absolute had raised $2 million from Sequoia Capital’s incubation programme, Surge, and two angel investors: Nadir Godrej and Sanjiv Rangrass.

The company will use the funds to bolster its three core platforms - bioscience research platform, universal Farm OS, and global trade platform, it said.

Founded in 2015 by Agam Khare and Prateek Rawat, Absolute controls the whole cycle of agricultural produce, right from seed to harvest.

Its digital platform is an Artificial Intelligence-driven operating system that can be implemented across vertical farms, greenhouses and open farms, enabling farmers to grow crops without using synthetic enzymes and genetically modified organisms.

It operates R&D platforms (BioX), intersecting plant biology, microbiology, omics, molecular biology, epigenetics and AI.

The company’s revenues have grown 12x in the last one year, it said in a statement.

Absolute serves fresh produce in around 10 countries and is expanding in other markets.

It is also in the process of deploying its Farm OS across more than 100,000 acres of its next-generation precision farm network.

“This capital helps us with technology expansion, hiring talent and scaling to newer markets and segments,” chief executive Khare said.

Agri-tech companies are increasingly gaining traction among risk investors and several such startups, including DeHaat, Gramophone, Bijak, Onato, Agrostar, Reshamandi, BharatAgri and TartanSense, have raised capital in the recent past.

“The team at Absolute has spent years researching every crop and truly understanding why plants grow, behave and live in certain ways,” said GV Ravishankar, managing director, Sequoia India.

Absolute's AI-driven scientific approach to agriculture creates a meaningful uplift for all participants across the agri-value chain, said Navroz D Udwadia, cofounder, Alpha Wave Global.

“Farmer profitability rises meaningfully, driven by an increase in yield and quality of produce. This allows Absolute to trade globally at healthy margins. With science and data driven decision making at its heart, we believe Absolute will be a global leading player in the ag-tech space,” he said.