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A Sydney-based agtech that tracks more than 23 million heads of livestock for 16,000 users has raised $11 million in an oversubscribed funding round comprising existing and new backers.
Founded in 2014 by John Fargher, Kevin Baum and Justin Webb from a garage, AgriWebb allows farmers to track forage amounts, animal locations, employee tasks, as well as manage grazing, cattle, and inventory quality.
The platform manages millions of livestock across more than 150 million acres in 18 countries, with a dominant presence in Australia, the UK, the United States and Brazil. In Australia alone, AgriWebb tracks more than a quarter of the nation’s sheep and cattle.
The latest capital injection will be used to further enhance AgriWebb’s platform capabilities, with a focus on connecting on-farm data with global food brands and retailers to meet new regulatory demands, such as the EU Sustainability Green Deal and California’s SB253 reporting requirements.
"At AgriWebb, we are committed to using technology not just as an efficiency tool but as a means to feed the world more sustainably,” AgriWebb co-founder and executive chairman Justin Webb said.
“The increasing interest from impact investors and corporate stakeholders in AgTech underscores a collective commitment to thriving, sustainable agricultural practices. This is an exciting time for AgriWebb and the broader agricultural community."
The recent funding round attracted investment from existing backers Germin8 Ventures, Grosvenor Food & AgTech and Telus Ventures, which backed the company’s $40 million Series B round in late 2022.AgriWebb also attracted new investment from listed Swedish industrial company Munters Group.
When asked whether the company would seek more capital in the future, Fargher told Business News Australia the company would focus on organic growth for the next period.
“We are set for organic growth for the next period, however we are looking at potential acquisition and roll-up strategies in the digital agriculture space where we can aggregate sources of data to combine, compile and interpret information into actionable insights and verified audit reports that will deliver the corporate sustainability teams the information they need while simultaneously financially rewarding the producers who have dutifully kept accurate records of good practices,” said Fargher, who was included in the Australia's Top 100 Young Entrepreneurs list.
In 2023, AgriWebb secured a deal to supply sustainability data to some of the world’s biggest beef suppliers and consumers, such as fast food giant McDonald’s. The company’s software is being used across hundreds of ranches in the US to show a reduction of carbon emissions by 2030.
That same year, AgriWebb secured a strategic partnership with US-based Cargill Animal Nutrition, one of the world’s largest privately owned agribusinesses, in Brazil. The South American nation hosts the largest commercial cattle herd in the world, which is around 10 times the size of Australia. This deal is one of AgriWebb’s most important partnerships to date.
Over the last five months, the number of livestock on the platform grew from 21 million to 23 million.
"Since our initial investment in 2017, AgriWebb has consistently demonstrated its ability to lead and innovate in the AgTech space,” Grosvenor Food & AgTech managing partner Anthony James said.
“This additional investment underscores our confidence in their vision and leadership and reaffirms their alignment with Grosvenor's commitment to sustainability in food and agtech and our broader real estate activities."
AgriWebb said that despite challenging macroeconomic conditions that affected the SaaS (Software as a Service) industry in 2022 and 2023, the company has exhibited strong growth in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR), client base expansion, and margin improvement.
The company noted it has grown by 35 per cent year-on-year relatively consistently.
"We're thrilled to deepen our investment in AgriWebb, confirming our confidence in their visionary leadership and growth,” Germin8 Ventures founder and managing partner Michael Lavin said.
“Their recent major commercial partnerships with some of the world's largest food and retail companies underscore AgriWebb's pivotal role in using digital tools to redefine sustainability in agriculture.
“This aligns perfectly with our mission to support innovative solutions that drive value for multiple stakeholders and harmonize animal agriculture with sustainability."
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