Jordanian Ag-Tech startup Nestrom raises seed funding from Propeller, 500 Startups, Wamda and Agrimatico

Amman-based AgTech startup Nestrom has raised seed funding from Propeller Inc., 500 Startups, Wamda Capital, international agricultural distribution company Agrimatico, and some angel investors. The details of the deal were not disclosed but given the names involved, we are guessing it’s a high-end six-figure amount (US dollar obviously). The startup had previously raised pre-seed investment, from Propeller, when it went through their acceleration program last year.

Founded in 2017 by Yousef Wadi, Kanaan Manasrah and Shadi Al Shalabi Nestrom has developed different products to help farm managers digitize their operations. The startup has a vision to convert traditional agriculture to “factory-like” highly efficient and controlled operations with its suite of SaaS and IIoT (Industrial IOT) products. In simple words, as Nestrom like to put it, they want to transform farms into smart farms.

This suite of products includes Farm Management Software that allows farm managers to report and track information of each field within the farm, Workforce Management System that helps track open field workers movement and time spent in areas by utilizing low-end Android devices to track movement and type of activity, and Online Connected Sensors, its IoT standard sensor system that is capable of online remote connectivity and alerting whenever the set parameters are sensed, so farm managers can access information online from anywhere in the world.

Speaking about the investment, Yousef Wadi, the founder & CEO of Nestrom, who has previously co-founded ArabiaWeather as well, told MENAbytes: “The agriculture space is usually neglected when it comes to enabling technologies but is of high importance as food demand and world’s population grow. We are happy to secure our early investment post acceleration and investment by Propeller which provided product and strategic support to go from ideation to market within only a year”

“Our new round also involves strategic investments from Agrimatico and angels who are major players in agriculture which highly validates the value Nestorm has provided so far.” he added.

Nestrom’s products are available throughout the EMEA region and are currently being used by some of the big names in agriculture sector in Saudi and Jordan. The startup aims to use this investment to further develop their products and get into structured sales with focus on top agriculture producing countries in EMEA and beyond, including Egypt & Saudi.

Propeller’s Founder & Partner Zaid Al-Farekh thinks that Nestrom is redefining the agriculture space. “We are thrilled to be investors in the company and partners alongside its amazing founders. The team comes from a diverse background with deep expertise in technology, data science and product development,” he told MENAbytes.
“Nestrom is demonstrating how technology is able to empower and advance one of the oldest industries in the world. We have no doubt that the company is going to play a pivotal role in supporting agricultural businesses seeking to optimize operations and adopt international best practices.” Zaid added.

Kanaan Manasrah, the co-founder of Nestrom believes that precision, quality control and intelligent technologies are instrumental to how we will feed the next two billion people and beyond. “At Nestrom, we are part of this global effort and glad to empower farming business in the EMEA regions with such transformation and growth enabling capabilities that will address their key challenges; operationally and financially.” he said speaking to MENAbytes.

It is very rare to see Ag-Tech startups coming out of MENA. Even more rare to see one raising significant amount of investment. Considering that, Nestrom has done a pretty good job to reach where it is today but it’s a long road ahead.