Solinftec, a Brazil-based farm management software developer backed by investment, data and media company AgFunder, has secured $40m in a series B round led by private equity firm Unbox Capital, Bloomberg reported on Monday.
Private equity group TPG took part in the round through its TPG Art unit in an effort to avoid dilution of its existing stake. Unbox Capital invests on behalf of the Trajano family, the owners of e-commerce firm Magazine Luiza.
The equity funding was raised alongside $20m in debt financing co-led by Itaú BBA and Gaia Securitizations, which participated alongside unnamed family offices and hedge funds.
Founded in 2007, Solinftec has created software and hardware that connects agircultural machinery to an artificial intelligence-powered virtual assistant called Alice in order to optimise farm management.
The platform’s capabilities include real-time recommendations on when to spray pesticides or put harvesters on the field. It monitors 72% of Brazil’s sugar cane crops and 18 million acres of crops internationally, Solinftec CEO Rodrigo Iafelice dos Santos told Bloomberg.
The company will use the money to expand into additional regions and crops. Its software is already capable of monitoring corn, cotton, coffee, oranges and soybean.
TPG Art previously led a round of undisclosed size for Solinftec in July 2017, before AgFunder added an undisclosed amount later the same year. The funding was billed as a series B round at the time, but was referred to as a series A in AgFunder’s latest coverage.
