Funds will drive user base growth, product development and scaling of market linkage capabilities
FarMart, a mobile-based, agritech platform, has raised Rs 17.7 crore or $2.4 million in a pre-series A funding round led by Omidyar Network India and Avaana Capital. Existing investors Indian Angel Network and LetsVenture also participated. The company will focus on product development, user base expansion and scaling its market linkage capabilities.
FarMart, founded by Alekh Sanghera and Mehtab Singh Hans, operates India’s first micro-SaaS led agritech platform. The platform helps agri-retailers serve farmers better by providing them with access to information, market linkages and input. FarMart aims to make the entire value chain – from input to output – streamlined and remunerative. It does this by leveraging technology, the trust of the agri business communities, and optimising under-utilised assets of the retailers.
Retailers can use the platform to digitise their workflow and grow their businesses by offering agri-marketing to farmers. Within nine months of launch, FarMart has onboarded 10,000 retailers and has access to 400,000+ farmers across 15 states in the country. End buyers also use the platform to source the best produce at the right price from farmers directly without involving multiple intermediaries. FarMart, thus coordinates pricing, logistics, quality control and payment via its platform.
“Through our product-first approach, we have been able to create a scalable, trust-based distribution network that helps us gain access to farmers at the first mile. With this funding round, we seek to further our mission to become the largest online platform connecting food businesses with over 10 million farmers through our nationwide retailer network by 2025,” explained Alekh Sanghera, Co-founder and CEO, FarMart
“Over the last year we have made significant strides in developing our platform and growing our trust in the agribusiness community. Madhav Tandan and Shruti Srivastava have both been incredible thought partners to us in our journey and we are honoured to strengthen and formalise our relationship with Omidyar Network India and Avaana Capital. With such valued partners at this early stage, we are well on our way to move the needle in Indian agriculture,” Mehtab Hans, Co-founder, FarMart.
“With its innovative tech-led, merchant-centric and distribution-first model, Farmart has set out on a journey to create an agri platform that helps increase value realisation and income for farmers. They enable better access to markets, aggregate produce using existing infrastructure and are using data at the core of their decision-making. Alekh and Mehtab’s vision of solving for the needs of this massive and underserved market comprising ~1M merchants and ~140M farmers, resonates strongly with our investment thesis for the Next Half Billion and we’re excited to partner with them,” Madhav Tandan, Director, Omidyar Network India.
“Alekh and Mehtab have created a business model that encapsulates our view on how technology can connect various stakeholders to improve realisations for farmers and offerings for buyers, while also building a scalable, defensible, and profitable business model. We are encouraged by the traction of their micro-entrepreneur-led market linkage platform and are confident in the team’s ability and knowledge to take this business to great heights as well as deliver a positive impact to the supply chain for semi-perishable agri produce,” Shruti Srivastava, Principal, Investments, Avaana Capital.
