BoomGrow, a Malaysia-headquartered agritech startup that has recently expanded to the Philippines, has secured an undisclosed amount in its pre-Series A funding round from Asia-focused venture capital investor Gobi Partners.
Gobi’s investment was made through the Khazanah Nasional Berhad-backed Gobi Dana Impak Ventures fund, according to BoomGrow’s announcement.
Founded in 2015 by Murali Krishnamurthy, Dr. Jay Desan, and Shan Palani, BoomGrow operates FarmOS, which integrates software and hardware to enable each farm to reduce up to 95% usage of water, land, waste, and labor.
The startup has also turned repurposed shipping containers into what they call “Machine Farms” where they can be located in situ, growing pesticide-free vegetables with a significantly reduced carbon footprint.
Currently, BoomGrow can produce a wide range of leafy greens, microgreens, and herbs. It also plans to expand into a wider range of produce like fruiting and vine crops.
BoomGrow has recently expanded into the Philippine capital of Manila, a market it considers strategic because of the country’s high population density and the growing demand for fresh, clean, and nutritious produce.
With this latest funding round, BoomGrow aims to expand operations across Southeast Asia.
“BoomGrow is enabling access to better-quality fresh food by focusing on our ESG principles. Our commercial-scale solutions are backed by a data-driven approach, which is key to resilience and agile decision-making,” said Krishnamurthy, the startup’s co-founder and CEO.
The startup’s initial funding came in the form of grant funding from Malaysian government-linked company SME Corp, as well as VC investments from American VC firm Big Sky Capital along with angel investors.
Gobi Partners, the round’s anchor investor, is an Asia-focused VC firm with $1.6 billion in assets under management. It is headquartered in Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong.
Commenting on the investment, Gobi Malaysia Managing Partner Jamaludin Bujang said food security is a major issue faced by many countries as a result of climate change, rising population, and limited supply of farming areas.
“We are at the point in history where we cannot overlook the importance of investing in the right companies that can change the world and in BoomGrow, we see just this,” he stressed.