Kenyan Startup Gro Intelligence Secures $85m Series B Funding

Its US$85 million Series B round, which according to Disrupt Africa is the largest one yet within the African tech startup ecosystem, was co-led by Intel Capital, Africa Internet Ventures – a strategic partnership between TPG Growth and EchoVC, and the family offices of Ronald Lauder and Eric Zinterhofer.

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Schusterman Family Investments, Dick Parsons, Rethink Food and various strategic family offices were all new investors, with previous investors DCVC and GGV Capital joining them.

The funding will be used to accelerate the Gro Platform’s growth and global acceptance, improve the machine-learning capabilities of the platform and provide regional insights into food, agriculture and climate risk.

Gro’s founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Sara Menker (pictured above) said, “Food security and climate risk represent existential global-sized opportunities for our AI-powered decisions and insights platform. We see a tremendous need for the market knowledge provided by the Gro Platform.

Our customers have come to rely on Gro as a unique source of actionable data-driven insights about our food supply and models to measure and manage associated climate change risk to physical and financial assets across the globe. We are absolutely delighted to welcome our new investors and continue to be grateful to our existing investors for their support.”