Funds will be used to extend the network to 2,000 rural retail centres
DeHaat, an agri-tech platform that helps farmers access agri inputs and financial services, and sell their produce, has raised $12Mn in a Series A round funding led by Sequoia India and FMO, the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank. Existing investors Omnivore and AgFunder also participated in the latest round of funding.
Shashank Kumar, co-founder and CEO of DeHaat, said the company plans to use the funds to strengthen its presence in States such as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal, where it currently operates, and also to expand to newer regions, mainly in North India.
“The platform helps farmers secure thousands of agri-input products, including seeds and fertilizers, and receive tailored advisory on the crop they should sow in a season. We have built a comprehensive database of crop tests to offer advice to farmers,” he added.
DeHaat, which employs 242 people, also helps them connect with 200 institutional partners to provide farmers with working capital, and when the season is over, helps them sell their yields to bulk buyers such as Reliance Fresh, food delivery start up Zomato i and business-to-business e-commerce giant Udaan.
DeHaat does not charge any fee for its advisory, but takes a cut whenever farmers use its platform to buy agri-inputs or sell their crop yields. The start-up will use the fresh capital to extend its network to 2,000 rural retail centres, on-board more micro-entrepreneurs for last-mile delivery and reach 1 million farmers by June of next year. DeHaat is also working on automating its supply chain and developing more sophisticated data analytics, Kumar said.
At stake is India’s agriculture market that is worth $350 billion and serves nearly 100 million small and independent farmers, said Abhishek Mohan, VP at Sequoia Capital India, i the VC fund that writes more checks than anyone else in the country.
This industry is on the brink of a massive transformation thanks to ease of regulation, farmers getting organized and increasing penetration of smartphones. DeHaat is leveraging these trends to build the next-gen product in agricultural supply chain,” said Mohan in a statement.
“The tipping point that led to Sequoia India’s decision to partner with them was the field visit, where the farmers expressed how proud they were to be associated with a platform they felt truly worked in their favour. This impact and deep brand loyalty stems from the leadership team’s razor-sharp focus, deep empathy and fine execution,” he added.
