CropIn’s Early Employees, Investors Realize 70x Returns in a $4.3 Mn Secondary Sale

-

CropIn has witnessed phenomenal growth over the last few years fuelled by a combination of new product introductions, entry into international markets and creation of new target customer segments in the Ag value chain. CropIn started with an initial investment of $10,000, which was raised from friends & family, Seed investors and early employees who believed in the vision of the founders. These early employees and investors became early shareholders in the company. 

In the recently concluded Series C funding, the company raised $20 million of primary capital, taking the overall investment into the company to $33 million. This was followed by a secondary sale of $4.3 Mn and was open to the company’s employees and investors holding stocks. Several early investors and employees who sold their stocks realized nearly 70x returns on their investment. 

Early Employees, Investors Get Good Returns From CropIn
In the first of its kind move in the agtech space, this is huge value creation for the employees and depicts the healthy growth that the company has been witnessing. A Secondary Sale or ESOP buyback ensures that employees receive benefits for the impact that they are creating with their work and contributes significantly to the growth of the company.

Vishal Kuchanur, one of the early employees at CropIn and one of the beneficiaries of the Secondary Sale, shared his perspective on working with CropIn, "My experience at CropIn as a Technologist has been truly enriching and gratifying. Being in a then-unknown sector of Agritech and pioneering the space, CropIn is transforming organizations’ perception of digital technology in the Ag space. I wanted to work in an organization which had a real impact in the lives of people and CropIn gave me an opportunity to ideate, experiment, and grow while building products that streamline Agri value chains globally."

"When I had first met Krishna and Kunal in 2011, agri-tech as a category of product solutions was almost unknown. But, Krishna and Kunal were convinced that digitisation of agricultural data and then building smart solutions on top of it, for all stakeholders involved, would be essential for improving and optimizing crop quality and output. While they were at a very early stage then, it was this conviction of theirs that drove me to invest in them. And since, they've come a long way - in terms of multiple products & innovations, lots of happy customers, an efficient team, and multiple rounds of funding as well. It has been an absolute delight to back entrepreneurs like them, and see their vision unfold while being a part of it in a small way. And I am very excited for the journey forward," said Pallav Nadhani, Early Investor at CropIn.

Vasudev Avadhani, who has been the advisor to Krishna Kumar and CropIn throughout, shared his views on the company’s recent achievements “Krishna approached me almost 9 years back with his most innovative idea to use smart mobile technology to reform and transform Indian Agriculture, leaving a cushy job in a top foreign multinational, which showed his courage of conviction. 

During my initial years of operating in a small rented house, I could see his fierce determination and perseverance to secure first key accounts. He showed similar determination while securing his first few investors to pull through CropIn's most difficult times! Now with his secondary sale of shares to prominent VCs and profitable operations in several foreign countries, I am quite convinced that CropIn (his baby) would soon join India's Unicorn Club of startups."

CropIn was established with the vision of improving farmer livelihoods by harnessing the power of AI and Machine Learning through predictive analytics and modelling into agriculture. CropIn is determined to progressively achieve its goal of building a path for the employees’ overall growth and pursue opportunities to create wealth for the employees through the company’s stocks.

“It is both humbling and satisfying to enable tremendous return on investment and value for our early employees and investors who believed in us. Nearly 60% of our employees hold stock options in the company. As a growing company we will be looking for other opportunities to expand our stock programs to provide this as an additional benefit for our employees and enable them to participate more actively in the growth journey of the organization”, said Krishna Kumar, Founder and CEO, CropIn.

The company has been actively implementing some high impact work with a very diverse set of clientele and partners globally with the ultimate goal of making farming sustainable. So far, CropIn has digitized over 16 million acres of farmland and enriched the lives of nearly 7 million farmers, across 52+ countries covering 400 crops and over 10,000 crop varieties.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dr Prabhu Set To Score A 'Perfect 10' As Dean Of KMC, Mangaluru

-
Image
He was the first-ever alumnus to become the Dean of Kasturba Medical College (KMC), Mangaluru on December 1, 2011. A little less than a decade to that date and come June 1, Dr  M Venkataraya Prabhu will set a record of sorts to excel all his predecessors – most of whom were his own teachers – to become the longest-serving Dean in the history of KMC, Mangaluru. In 2011, little did Dr Prabhu know that he would emulate his illustrious teachers. June 1 will Dr Prabhu exceed the previous record of late Prof KP Ganesan (9-1/2-years). In reaching here, Dr Prabhu has crossed the  6-year stint by Prof M V Chari,  7-years of Prof M P Pai, 7-1/2-years of Prof  B M Hegde, and 8-1/2 years of Prof GD Veliath, all of whom he reveres. Dr M Venkataraya Prabhu, Dean, KMC, Mangaluru Attributing the greatness and reputation that the college enjoys today to these illustrious teachers, Dr Prabhu also a ttributes his present stature to the founder of KMC Late Dr TMA Pai from whom he receiv...
Read more

Rare celestial Mars Occultation Event Visible Only In India on April 17

-
Image
With the last new moon on April 11, the moon will appear half-lit in the evening sky on April 17 as it follows the sun towards the western horizon. If you observe around 5pm, you will notice a small tiny shining dot very close to the Moon. This is Mars, the red planet. Within a few minutes, the red planet will disappear all of a sudden and appear nowhere in the sky. This is the Lunar occultation of Mars which will be visible for the people of India only.  The moon moves across the sky each night. Being close to the earth, it covers half a degree width in the sky. On this path, there are rare occasions when the moon passes in front of a star and cause occultation which is like a total solar eclipse when the moon covers the object completely and the object disappears for 1-1/2-hours as the moon makes its way across the sky. We see stars appearing to pass behind the moon, disappearing on one and reappearing on the other.  All planets in our solar system move around the Sun in alm...
Read more

Durga Facility's Philanthropic Touch Gives A Clean Edge To Mangaluru City Police

-
Image
Mangaluru City Police received a massive dose of confidence to discharge their duties with city-based Durga Facility Management Services Pvt Ltd, a company specialising in housekeeping and janitorial tasks, coming forward to sanitize all 22 police stations in the police commissionerate. This was the company’s way of thanking the police force who are discharging their duties from these police stations in some very trying and testing times. Office Of DCP (CAR) Being Sanitized B Sachidananda Shetty, CMD of Durga Facility Management Services Pvt Ltd said it was his intention to help the police personnel with this 'clean gesture'. “Ours is a city-based company with pan-India work presence, it was but natural that we expressed our gratitude to the city police force by making their work environment safe,” Sachchidanand Shetty said. The company started the work with police stations in the central sub-division.   Staff Of Durga Facility At Women's Police Station “We will cover the r...
Read more