The funds will be used to scale up BharatAgri’s e-commerce platform to cater to new geographies and strengthen its last-mile delivery.
BharatAgri, an advisory-led e-commerce platform for farmers, announced that the company has raised Series A funding of Rs 35 crore ($4.3 million) led by Arkam Ventures, an early-stage venture fund dedicated to ‘Middle-India’ startups. The round also saw participation from Capria Ventures, and the existing investors, India Quotient, 021 Capital, and Omnivore.
The funds will be used to scale up BharatAgri’s e-commerce platform to cater to new geographies and strengthen its last-mile delivery. Rahul Chandra, Managing Director of Arkam Ventures, will join the board of BharatAgri.
Founded by IIT-Madras alumni Siddharth Dialani and Sai Gole, BharatAgri uses smart farming advisory to help farmers identify and order the best input specific to their needs. The company has built prediction algorithms that provide advisory customised to crops, region and climatic changes. BharatAgri’s e-commerce platform offers 10,000-plus agricultural products such as fertilisers, seeds, pesticides, insecticides, and farming equipment, among others, and is delivered pan-India across 20,000-plus pin codes.
Dialani said, “In the next three years, 50 million-plus farmers will use the internet for the first time, and we want BharatAgri to be their bridge to the digital era of agri that is now dawning. With 10 lakh-plus unique monthly users, 10,000-plus SKUs, 100-plus marketplace partners, and 20,000-plus serviceable pin codes, BharatAgri is making a significant impact on farmers’ lives. With this investment, BharatAgri aims to further strengthen its rural supply chain, expand the user base and become the largest and the de facto e-commerce platform for farmers.”
BharatAgri has conducted extensive weather experiments for four years at ICAR, Hyderabad, and collected parameters to build the prediction algorithm to offer personalised and dynamic crop calendars for farmers, satellite-based monitoring, and soil and water testing services, mentioned the company in statement.
Rahul Chandra, MD of Arkam Ventures, said “Agri inputs is a $44-billion market in India and suffers from stockouts, misinformation and non-scientific usage. The Indian farmer is now seeking digital information and concerned with farm yields, crop as well as personal safety and household wealth”
Chandra also added that the rural infrastructure in India is rapidly modernising with the last mile touching more and more villages, and farmers are increasingly trusting digital knowledge sources. The credible advice from BharatAgri helps bridge the trust deficit that accompanies input purchasing and promises to open a digital channel for thousands of new products and brands that farmers seek to buy.
