Tech-focused venture capital fund 8VC has led a $1.75 million seed round for AgVend, a leading e-commerce retailer for agriculture inputs and services. Green Bay Ventures, Precursor Ventures, FJ Labs, Seahawk Capital, The House Fund, T-Bird Capital, and Escondido Ventures also participated in the round, which will go toward building the AgVend team and expanding nationwide.
AgVend partners with local retailers, enabling it to offer the price and selection benefits of the online marketplace with the personal attention and touch of the traditional retail channel. “Retailers provide a tremendous amount of value to the farmer. Why create redundancies and cut them out of the equation when we can leverage their logistics networks, partnerships with manufacturers, and knowledge of the products to deliver a new level of customer experience?” AgVend co-founder and CEO Alexander Reichert said in a company blog post.
The company went live at the start of 2018 and now has inventory in states throughout the Midwest and the Pacific Northwest, with plans to be nationwide by September of this year.
Ag-Centric e-Commerce is Growing
Pressure on food prices has led farmers in the U.S. to find new efficiencies and ways to cut costs, and online retail is one channel that has seen growth.
The Farmers Business Network Inc. (FBN), which operates an independent farmer-to-farmer network built to connect farmers and allow for the sharing of data, insights, and information critical to agronomic decision making, has a service that enables farmers to monitor nationwide supply prices.
The growth in ag eCommerce is a global phenomenon. In March, Agrofy, an Argentinian ag-focused ecommerce platform startup, announced the successful raising of $6 million through an oversubscribed Series A.
Through Agrofy’s platform, the startup offers both growers and agribusiness operators a range of services including transaction hosting, sales lead generation in a diverse range of categories including inputs, machinery, farmland, equipment, insurance and vehicles, as well as logistics and financial services. Since its launch, 5,000 companies, including multinational players, have signed with the company listing more than 65,000 products.
By David Nitchman, GAI Media
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