Grão Direto, a Brazilian agricultural commodity marketplace that runs on mobile and WhatsApp, raised ~USD8m from Barn Investimentos, Bayer, Ammagi, ADM. Brazil-based PE firm Lanx Capital led a ~USD2.7m round in February 2021; Grão Direto was Monsanto Growth Ventures’ inaugural investment in Brazil in 2018. 

(Valor International) – When a farmer has a crop to sell, he has to deal with a series of phone calls to get the best offer for his products or even exchange grains for fertilizers and pesticides, in an analogical — and sometimes stressful — process that can last over a week until the contract is signed.

Grão Direto — a startup created by three friends who have known each other since childhood in Uberaba, a country town in Minas Gerais state — wants to change this logic, digitalizing the negotiation of agricultural commodities by connecting rural producers from all over the country to the most diverse buyer profiles, from large trading companies to feed mills and grain warehouses.

Read more at Valor International.