————–
Greek AgTech Startup Centaur Analytics Raises $1.3 Million to Tackle Post-Harvest Agriproducts Waste
Centaur announces $1.3M funding round led by OurCrowd First to accelerate the commercialization of its proprietary wireless sensors and cognitive services platform for monitoring and protecting post-harvest products quality
Jerusalem, Israel, and Volos, Greece — September 28, 2016 – Centaur Analytics, an AgTech IoT startup that provides real-time stored agriproducts monitoring and protection solutions, announced today that it has raised $1.3 million in a round led by Israel’s most active seed-stage venture fund OurCrowd First, to accelerate the commercialization of its proprietary wireless sensors and cognitive services platform for monitoring and protecting post-harvest product quality. Piraeus Jeremie Technology Catalyst Fund from Greece and Xponentialworks Founder and former 3D Systems CEO, Avi Reichental participated in the round and Mr. Reichental joined the company as its Executive Chairman.
“The protocols and storage principles for maintaining quality of stored agriproducts have not changed much over the last 150 years, which is quite remarkable given 21st century food safety advances and concerns for a growing world population,” said Yori Nelken, General Partner at OurCrowd First who led this round and joined the board of the company. “We are proud to partner with the team at Centaur to significantly improve safety and reduce global losses of hard-earned agriproducts by bringing modern IoT and cognitive systems into this ripe-for-disruption space. OurCrowd is committed to seed and scale disruptive AgTech companies that are focused on securing the world’s food supply.”
“We are thrilled to have a consortium of renowned funds and angels participating in our seed financing round,” said Dr. Sotiris Bantas, President & CEO of Centaur Analytics. “Their support validates our progress to date and provides us with the required financial strength to commercialize our proprietary sensors and cognitive systems for post-harvest crops monitoring and protection, even faster. We are resolute in our mission to harness exponential technologies in reducing post-harvest waste across the supply-chain from farm to shelf.”
About Centaur Analytics
Centaur Analytics is the first full-stack IoT provider of solutions that enhance the quality and safety of stored agricultural products. Our proprietary wireless sensors and cognitive predictive and prescriptive cloud analytics enable precision fumigation and real-time monitoring of stored product condition. Our mission is to dramatically reduce the estimated $1 trillion of wasted crops annually from farm to shelf by rapidly deploying our cognitive connected solutions globally. For more information visit www.centaurtek.com.
About OurCrowd First
OurCrowd First is Israel’s premier seed-stage venture fund, raised on OurCrowd, a world-leading equity crowdfunding platform. The fund is managed by General Partners Eduardo Shoval and Yori Nelken, both serial entrepreneurs who bring to OurCrowd First’s portfolio over four decades of experience growing multiple early-stage startups.
OurCrowd First already curated and funded a portfolio of 13 startups, in high-growth sectors including Internet of Things, industrial energy, Augmented Reality, mobile infrastructure, 3D imaging, digital healthcare, and cognitive systems for AgTech. These Israeli and global investments were made together with leading investors including Softbank, Khosla Ventures, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and Artis Ventures. OurCrowd First was recognized as Israel’s Most Active Micro-VC in 2015 by the IVC Research Center. For more information visit www.ourcrowdfirst.com.
About Piraeus Jeremie Technology Catalyst Fund
Established in 2012, the PJ Tech Catalyst Fund is a venture capital fund that invests in seed stage startup companies with a focus on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and supports the development of entrepreneurship in Greece. Visit www.pjtechcatalyst.com.
For media enquiries, contact:
Centaur Analytics: Alyssa Hoyt, Alyssa@xponentialworks.com
OurCrowd: Leah Stern, Communications Director, +44 7470 196 826 / leah@ourcrowd.com
