SeedBlink launches the second round of funding in Bulgaria for Agriniser, an agritech startup

• This is the second Bulgarian company raising capital on SeedBlink in Bulgaria following Dronamics in December 2021.
• Agriniser has 1,500 grain buyers and sellers and transactions of 13.6 million EUR worth of grain since the platform is operational, in Bulgaria only.
• The investment will be used to expand Agriniser internationally, Romania being the first target, and to acquire new key talent.

SeedBlink, the European investment platform specialising in funding and scaling technology startups, launches new funding round for Agriniser, the UK-based Bulgarian Agritech company, that has developed a digital marketplace where one can buy and sell grain. The funds will be used to support the startup’s expansion plans, with a first goal to enter the Romanian market and acquire key talent.

This new round of funding targets an amount of 500,000 EUR and is led by Vitosha Venture Partners as a lead investor with an investment of 200,000 EUR. Agriniser is the second Bulgarian company to raise capital on the co-investing platform. Dronamics had raised more than 900,000 EUR in December 2021 as part of its 15 million EUR mega-round led by Eleven Ventures.

SeedBlink is the fastest growing investment platform specialising in finding, vetting, funding and scaling European tech startups. The company’s vision is to shape Europe’s tech future through an investment platform that has the reach of crowdfunding, the flexibility of angel investors and the structure of venture capital. It aims to open investments in start-ups to real people and do this by building a modern platform, a tech savvy community, the network and expertise to grow companies post investment. Individuals can create an account on SeedBlink and invest alongside VCs and angel investors with a small ticket size of as little as 2,500 EUR or even 1,000 EUR minimum ticket for those part of the SeedBlink Club.

Agriniser is a digital marketplace that facilitates grain trade between grain producers on the sell side and processors, animal farmers, brokers, traders and multinational exporters on the buy side. In recent years, 13.6 million EUR worth of grain have been transacted through the marketplace, with 21% of the arable land with grains, oilseed and pulses in Bulgaria being on the marketplace. Over 1,500 grain buyers and sellers are registered in Bulgaria only. Given the great success of Agriniser on the local market, the company is now looking to expand into a new market each year, starting with Romania, to become the leading European grain 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. And innovation is a must. In my opinion the sector is about to grow at a much higher speed going forward, considering the pressure on the food supply chain in the last 3 years.”, says Kristian Ivanov, founder and CEO of Agriniser.

Agriniser is one of the 10 winners selected for EBRD’s Star Venture program in Bulgaria, Romania and Moldova, being one of the 2 finalists from Bulgaria. The startup is also part of the Nextcelerator program dedicated to Agritech companies organised by SeedBlink, Microsoft and Agricover. As a result of the great support seen from all these companies during the accelerator’s sessions, in combination with Agriniser’s plans to start operations in Romania, the decision for an investment campaign through SeedBlink as part of the larger round led by Vitosha Venture Partners happened naturally.

“Many experts have recently been all over the news, telling us about the direct negative impact of the war in Ukraine together with the poor harvest in northern Africa on various crop prices. These events, however, have more than strengthened the need for a seamless, digitalised and international crop trading platform, which is what Agriniser aspires to be.”, shares Angel Hadjiev, Managing Director at SeedBlink in Bulgaria.

“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. We, at Vitosha Venture Partner, are thrilled to support them along the way.”, shares Stoyan Nedin, Venture Partner at Vitosha Venture Partners.

Agriniser’s seed round will be launched on SeedBlink on June 23, at 10 am EEST.

About Agriniser

Agriniser is a Bulgarian company headquartered in the UK. The most liquid digital marketplace with the biggest listing volumes which facilitates grain trade between grain growers on the sellers side and processors, animal farmers, brokers, traders and multinational exporters on the buyers side, is run by entrepreneur Kristian Ivanov. The agritech also provides key market information to its stakeholders in the form of weekly market reports. This has attracted international ag-data companies and reputable agencies such as Refinitiv, Barchart and Agflow amongst others that they currently partner with. Agriniser also generates data on physical grain prices across regions. In recent years, 13.6 million EUR worth of grain has been transacted through the platform. 21% of the arable land with grains, oilseed and pulses in Bulgaria is on the platform together with over 1,500 grain buyers and sellers registered in Bulgaria only. The company has raised 350,000 GBP from angel investors in the UK and Bulgaria over the years in order to reach these results.