The new funding comes just a month after the startup laid off around 70% of its workforce, or 350 people, in February as part of a restructuring,
Green Labs CEO Sanghoon Shin said in an interview with TechCrunch that it now has a headcount of 150 people, adding that the company’s selling, general and administrative expenses (SG&A) had been reduced by about 80% compared to year-end 2022.
The startup has built smart farming software and hardware for farmers to digitize the entire agriculture value chain, from crop to distribution. Shin told me the company’s “Farm Morning” app aggregates farm data, then artificial intelligence gives insights into crop lifecycle and also provides a network through which farmers can connect and share insights.
Indeed, 900,000 farmers currently use the app in South Korea, and that figure has tripled in the past 12 months since its launch in 2021, Shin said. It also operates B2B marketplace Sinsun Market, and it has the ambition to be a LinkedIn for farmers, Shin added.
