June 21 (SeeNews) - UK-based Bulgarian grain-trading digital marketplace Agriniser said on Tuesday that it is launching a seed funding round targeting 500,000 euro ($528,620) to fuel its international expansion, with the Romanian market in its initial focus.
Agriniser's fundraising will be led by Vitosha Venture Partners, which is providing 200,000 euro of the total, the start-up said in an e-mailed statement.
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As part of the seed round, a fundraising campaign will be also launched on Thursday on SeedBlink, with Agriniser to become only the second Bulgarian company to collect funds through the Romanian technology-focused investment platform.
"Agritech in Europe is growing, and Bulgaria is no exception. There is great potential to help the agricultural industry achieve efficiencies, conserve resources and ensure consumers have access to safe and healthy food," Agriniser founder and CEO Kristian Ivanov said. He added that developments in the sector are about to pick up speed given recent food supply pressures.
These pressures have been compounded by the war in Ukraine and the poor harvest in North Africa, SeedBlink Bulgaria managing director Angel Hadjiev said. SeedBlink helped Bulgarian cargo drone-maker Dronamics raise 900,000 euro in late 2021.
"Europe's agri business, and the grain trade in particular, experiences great market inefficiencies due to low digitalisation and transparency. Agriniser's expert team and visionary product makes them perfectly positioned to lead the inevitable transformation of this sector," Stoyan Nedin, partner at Vitosha Venture Partners, said.
Agriniser facilitates grain trade between grain growers on the sellers' side and processors, animal farmers, brokers, traders and multinational exporters on the buyers' side. The company lists some 1,500 grain traders as users, with transactions totalling 13.6 million euro.
In March, Agriniser partnered with US-based commodity information provider Barchart, which integrated Bulgarian grain prices into its global commodity prices inventory.
Earlier this year, the Bulgarian government set aside 1.1 billion levs ($594.8 million/562.4 million euro) to buy local wheat and sunflower seed to boost the country's grain reserves as a precaution amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.
($ = 0.94549 euro)
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)