Agri-data platform, Gro Intelligence, has reportedly shut down after months of capital shortage, leadership changes, and a controversial restructuring at the beginning of the year.
- According to AgFunderNews, the company based in New York and Nairobi laid off 60% of its staff in March this year, a move that is currently being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
- According to former employees disgruntled by the manner of their expulsion, they had not received prior notices of the mass layoff, a situation which violates labour laws.
- The company’s founder, Sara Menker, was replaced as CEO in February this year by James Cariello – and despite securing some little funding in March, some employees were certain it would only keep the company afloat for a few months.
The company received US$ 85 million in Series B funding in 2021 from VCs such as Africa Internet Ventures and Intel Capital. Furthermore, it appeared at TIME magazine as one of 100 most influential companies in the same year.
It seemed like Gro Intelligence would prosper on but former employees cite that the company survived on a precarious revenue model that was unsustainable. Last year’s funding drought spelled doom for many ambitious startups, and seemingly enough – Gro Intelligence is one of the victims.
“It had positioned itself as a food security platform to a small Asian country and a country in the Middle East exporting oil, without success. It had also attempted to engage the US government under a variety of guises but was only picking up bits and pieces of business here and there,” AgFunderNews reported.
When it was founded in 2012, Gro Intelligence presented itself as a reliable data analytics company that fetched useful agricultural information for other agricultural organizations, governments, and investment banks. This was done through technology such as AI and satellite imaging. Since its establishment, it had raised US$ 117 million to sustain its operations.
Gro Intelligence follows Copia and iProcure to the startups’ graveyard this year, despite being companies that were well-funded since establishment. It only reveals that too much funding is what kept many startups operational for many years, and when funding declined, their revenue models were exposed as unsound.
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