The Series B venture financing comes from a syndicate that includes returning investors Omnivore Partners, a venture fund investing in early stage agriculture & food technology companies in India.
Skymet, founded in 2003, is India's first private weather monitoring service, with the largest network of automatic weather stations (AWS) in the country. Skymet provides clients with accurate short-range, medium-range, and seasonal weather forecasts, along with agricultural risk solutions including crop area/yield forecasts, remote sensing, and agricultural insurance product development. Skymet also launched India's first consumer weather website, www.skymetweather.com, and has developed an Android app on the same platform.
The funds raised are intended to be used to expand Skymet's weather monitoring network, to introduce new instrumentation for tracking hail and frost, to invest in R&D for weather forecasting and crop area/yield forecasting, and to expand the market for its services in India and abroad. Skymet will also re-launch its website on Wednesday 20 August, going beyond India to target consumers across Asia and Africa The new website will provide weather forecasts in seven languages, including Hindi and Marathi.
Stephen Stout, CEO of dmg information Asia Pacific said, "We are thrilled to partner with Skymet and lead this venture funding. Climate variability is a growing threat worldwide and we believe that India will benefit hugely from the expansion of Skymet's weather monitoring network and development of accurate agricultural statistics. We look forward to working with Jatin Singh and his impressive team."
According to Jatin Singh, Founder/CEO of Skymet, "Skymet helps companies, governments, farmers, and consumers to manage risk from weather and agriculture. We're very excited to have the support of DMGT as we scale up and bring our solutions to a wider audience."
Mark Kahn, Founding Partner of Omnivore Partners, said, "It's been great watching Skymet grow exponentially over the past three years, now culminating with investment from DMGT. We see Skymet delivering tremendous value to India's agricultural sector in the coming years."
