Key Points
During the three intervening years, Strey and her team had reshaped Plantix from a tool they hoped would help reduce global pesticide use into an app that would make it easier for farmers to buy pesticides..
But a modest goal hasnt always been that sexy for investors, who prefer to rapidly build toward a single giant payout, Strey says.. The team quickly realized that if Plantix was going to survive as a brilliant idea with no clear business model, they would have to give venture capitalists what they wanted: More downloads, more users who could somehow, someday be monetized...
The app had always provided farmers with both biological and chemical suggestions, but up until this point we didnt recommend any specific product from any specific company, says Alfonso Mateo Penas, a former Plantix plant physiologist..
Around 2018, with Plantix in need of more funding, the team began meeting with agricultural supply retailers across India to sketch out Plantix Partner, an online marketplace where a company could sell products such as pesticides and herbicides directly to farmers via the popular mobile app..
With the app now touting the retailer-facing sales platform and the farmer-facing Your Crop Doctora handheld plant physician that could diagnose, prescribe, and broker the sale of medicine, the apps euphemism for inputsthe Plantix team raised a further $7.3 million during a fourth round of venture capital funding late in 2019...
