St. Louis-based agriculture technology startup Eiwa, which has provided a data management platform used by agriculture companies, plans to expand its commercial operations after raising capital.
Eiwa has closed on a Series A funding round led by Champaign, Illinois-based Serra Ventures. Eiwa did not disclose the amount of the funding round, but a regulatory document it filed March 6 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission showed the company has raised $1.6 million in equity financing.
Eiwa, founded in 2014, initially began with a focus on providing data from drone imagery and has since expanded to provide a broader data management platform for customers.
“Through those first years, we realized the customers we were working with needed more tools to help them put all the information together,” said Carlos Hirsch, chief revenue officer at Eiwa.
In 2021, Eiwa launched Vault, a software product designed to collect data from multiple sources and locations on farms to provide its users with the ability to generate insights and analysis. Eiwa said its technology is used by agriculture companies to manage their field operations, helping them speed up “the overall product development process.”
Customers of Eiwa include agriculture firms Syngenta Group, GDM Seeds and Stine Seed Co. Eiwa currently has operations in the U.S., Argentina and Brazil. Hirsch said the Series A funding will help the company grow its customer base and enhance its technology.
“We brought in funding to expand our commercial team. That’s where most of that funding will be on to work, but also later in the year to expand our development team,” he said.
The agtech firm has already hired employees in customer success and account manager roles in Argentina and Brazil, Hirsch said. It also plans to hire a customer success employee and account manager in the U.S. In addition to ramping up sales in its existing markets, Hirsch Eiwa plans to target geographic expansion into Canada and additional counties in Latin America.
While Eiwa has its headquarters in St. Louis at the Helix Center Biotech Incubator, Hirsch said he is the company’s only local employee. Prior to joining Eiwa, Hirsch held roles with Monsanto and St. Louis-based manufacturer Vi-Jon. He also formerly worked locally for another agtech startup, S4 Agtech.
Hirsch said most of Eiwa’s employees are based in Argentina, which is where the startup launched. Eiwa has a total of 38 employees.
