SUMMARY
As Part Of The Transaction, InsuResilience Picks Up 26.8% Stake In Skymet
Noida-based agritech startup Skymet Weather Services has raised an undisclosed amount in Series C round of funding from the German government’s InsuResilience Investment Fund. As part of the transaction, InsuResilience has picked up a 26.8% stake in Skymet, according to a statement released by EY, which incidentally served as the exclusive financial advisor to Skymet for this transaction.
With the fundraise, Skymet aims to expand its Automated Weather Stations (AWS) network and secure new business in weather data, crop measurement, climate analytics, and disaster management, thereby extending its outreach to de-risk vulnerable Indian farmers from climate change.
Commenting on the funding round, Jatin Singh, founder and MD of Skymet stated, “Climate change is India’s leading national security challenge. Between the year 1900 and 2000, there was a drought per decade in India; but between 2000 and 2017, there have been five droughts and two below-normal monsoons. As climate change accentuates rain variability over the subcontinent, India’s water tables are collapsing and farmer distress is increasing. This investment allows Skymet to further expand our capabilities in mitigating weather risks across India. We are delighted to partner with the InsuResilience Investment Fund and BlueOrchard on this journey. Their knowledge of climate change and insurance makes them an ideal partner for us.”
Founded by Jatin Singh in 2003, Skymet offers weather-based business solutions to media, power, shipping and telecom. The company also provides risk management services to power, renewable energy (wind and solar) aviation, construction and the food & beverage industry in India.
With $700K in Series A, and $4.5 Mn in Series B, the weather monitoring service provider had raised around $5.2 Mn earlier from Omnivore Partners and DMGT. As InsuResilience has picked up 26.8% stakes in Skymet, the transaction marks a partial secondary purchase of shares from existing investors, including Omnivore and DMGT.
The InsuResilience Investment Fund has been set up by KfW on behalf of the German government. The investment fund is managed by Swiss-based impact investment manager BlueOrchard Finance.
Ernesto Costa, Co-Head of Private Equity at BlueOrchard said, “With large parts of the population active in agriculture, India is particularly exposed to extreme weather events. Skymet has built technologies and instruments to mitigate weather risks, thereby supporting farmers to cope with the consequences of climate. We are delighted to partner with Skymet in increasing the resilience of poor and vulnerable households in India.”
Besides the state and central government authorities, companies that provide weather monitoring and related agritech services such as agri-risk alarming etc are Microsoft AI, SGS Weather and Environmental Services, BKC WeatherSys, Weather Risk and so on.
With the central government allocating huge budgets for agriculture and VCs and other investors showing increasing interest, agritech startup ecosystem has shown a remarkable growth in terms of the number of startups, government policies and investments. The latest Series C funding by InsuResilience in an agritech startup marks another step to boost India’s farm-to-fork startup ecosystem, encouraging other agritech startups in the country.
