Agridence Pte. Ltd., a Singapore-based tech company that works in digital agriculture commodity supply chains, announced on Wednesday that it has raised funding led by Cercano Management, with support from existing investors EXEO Innovation Fund and Provident.
This will empower Agridence to rapidly scale its multi-commodity compliance platform to help its customers by tackling industry-wide challenges such as supply chain opacity, sustainability risks, and fragmented smallholder networks, the firm said in a statement.
According to the statement, the new funding will accelerate the firm’s go-to-market strategy, supporting entry into new commodity verticals and geographic markets through strategic partnerships and acquisitions.
CEO Gerald Tan, who has led Agridence since it started in 2018, has invested more money into the company, making him the founder and largest individual shareholder.
This shift from a corporate-backed startup to a founder-owned and led business shows Tan’s strong commitment to providing value to Agridence’s customers.
“This funding marks a pivotal new chapter for Agridence. We are immensely grateful for the foundational support from our early corporate shareholders; their backing was instrumental during our startup phase and crucial in building the robust platform we have today.
“Now, as we mature, embracing a founder-led model is key to unlocking greater agility and neutrality. That’s why this shift isn’t just about capital; it’s fundamentally about ownership alignment and direct accountability,” said Gerald Tan, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Agridence.
“The modular traceability infrastructure we built for natural rubber is now powering compliance for palm oil, cocoa, and beyond, proving these challenges are universal across agri-commodities, and we are now better positioned than ever to solve them,” he added.
According to the statement, the shift to an independent, founder-led model provides better alignment and allows Agridence to address a critical industry need for a truly neutral technology platform that serves all stakeholders without corporate bias.
“Southeast Asia is a key source and integral region in the global agri-commodities supply chain. A platform like Agridence, which applies technology while working with local stakeholders for more transparent, sustainable, and responsible sourcing, is imperative for the industry.
“With this additional capital and new model, we see immense potential in Agridence, especially so being independently led by a local founder who has an operating track record within the rubber sector and has a team with deep sector know-how and local knowledge,” said Yu Minjie, Managing Director at Cercano Management.
Agridence has grown from focusing on digitizing natural rubber trades to becoming a full multi-commodity platform for global companies and industry groups.
One major milestone is working with the Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber (GPSNR), whose members make up about 50% of the global market. GPSNR uses Agridence’s platform to submit yearly sustainability reports.
Agridence also runs the RSPO Certification, Trade, and Traceability System (prisma), which supports certified palm oil trades and sustainable palm oil credits. This system launched in February 2025 and is expected to have nearly 20,000 users.
As the technology partner for the Sustainable Coconut Partnership’s SCP Links platform, Agridence is helping make sustainability reporting easier, digitizing audits, and improving transparency in the coconut industry.
The company is also working on cocoa programs in Africa to help include smallholder farmers, and it is seeing growing interest in other crops like coffee, cashew, sugarcane, and more.
“Our biggest differentiator is our team’s deep and diverse agri-commodity background. Trust is everything in this business,
“By leveraging our relationships, domain expertise, and technology innovations, we deliver proven regulatory and risk frameworks that solve our customers’ real pain points. We know the challenges because we’ve lived them, and our partners trust us to solve them,” Tan added.
Lim Swee Yong, Chief Executive Officer of EXEO Innovation Fund Management, said Agridence has proven its capability to scale across multiple commodities and has earned the trust of global corporates, multinational corporations (MNCs), and industry associations.
“With momentum building in new commodities and geographies, the company is poised for exciting growth. We are proud to back the Agridence team as they enter this next chapter and deliver measurable impact across global supply chains,” he added.
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