Agritech platform DeHaat announced that it has raised a USD 12 million (INR 83 crore) Series A round led by Sequoia India, with participation from FMO, the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank. Existing investors Omnivore and AgFunder also participated in this round.
Based in Gurgaon and Patna and founded in 2012 by IIT, IIM and NIT alumni, DeHaat is a technology-based platform offering full-stack agricultural services to farmers, including distribution of high quality agri inputs, customized farm advisory, access to financial services, and market linkages for selling their produce.
With an aim to becoming a one-stop solution that meet the needs of Indian farmers while helping them increase their profitability, the platform integrates a digital marketplace with a rural network of last mile service delivery centers. DeHaat’s annual revenue has grown by 3.5x since March ’19.The company plans to scale up to 2,000 rural retail centres for last mile delivery as well as farm produce aggregation and 1 million farmers on the network by 2021. DeHaat will use some of the new funding to automate its supply chain and build the next layer of data analytics to drive further supply chain efficiency.
Shashank Kumar, Co-Founder & CEO of DeHaat said, “We are excited to partner with Sequoia India and FMO as we drive towards one million farmers on the DeHaat platform. Sequoia’s deep expertise in B2B platforms and technology products combined with FMO’s expertise in agricultural value chain financing will help DeHaat accelerate its growth while delivering massive impact for the farmers we work with.”
Currently serving over 210,000 farmers across Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Odisha, DeHaat provides farmers with access to over 3,000 agricultural inputs, combined with AI-based customised crop advisory content of pest & disease management for major crops delivered via mobile app and call centers. The platform also aggregates corn, wheat, rice, fruits, and vegetables from farmers on their network and directly supplies to over 200 commodity bulk buyers, including retail chains, e-commerce players, FMCG giants, and SME food processors.
“Indian agriculture is a $350B+ industry powered by close to 100M small and independent farmers. This industry is on the brink of a massive transformation with ease of regulation, famers getting organized and increasing smart phone penetration and DeHaat is leveraging these trends to build the next-gen product in agricultural supply chain”, said Abhishek Mohan, VP, Sequoia Capital India LLP. “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.
Jaap Reinking, Director Private Equity at FMO, said “Increasing economic uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic is a grave concern to all. Especially in these challenging times it is important to continue our support for innovative businesses in emerging markets, and focus on accelerating sustainable development. That is why we are proud to announce our partnership with Green Agrevolution - DeHaat through the FMO Ventures Program. We look forward to supporting this Indian Agri Tech platform with our expertise in agricultural value chain financing and rural development programs.”
DeHaat earlier raised a USD 4 million (INR 29 crore) pre-Series A round in March 2019, led by Omnivore and AgFunder, which was topped up in May 2019 with an additional USD 3 million (INR 20 crore) of venture debt from Trifecta Capital. Dexter capital was the exclusive advisor of this funding round.
About DeHaat:
DeHaat is a technology based platform offering full stack agricultural services to farmers, including distribution of high quality agricultural inputs, customized farm advisory, access to financial services, and market linkages for selling their produce. For more information on DeHaat, please visit: http://agrevolution.in
About Sequoia India:
Sequoia India helps daring founders build legendary companies, from idea to IPO and beyond. Sequoia India operates in Southeast Asia and India where we actively partner with founders from a wide range of companies, across categories, including BYJUs, Carousell, Druva, GO- JEK, OYO Rooms, Tokopedia, Truecaller, Zilingo, Zomato and more. We spur founders to push the boundaries of what’s possible. In partnering with Sequoia, startups benefit from 47 years of tribal knowledge and lessons learned working with companies
like Airbnb, Alibaba, Apple, Dropbox, Google, JD.com, LinkedIn, Meituan and Stripe early on.
From the beginning, non-profits have been the backbone of our LP base, which means founders’ accomplishments make a meaningful difference. The majority of our profits – over $16 billion since 2000 alone – are returned to great causes, like the Ford Foundation, Mayo Clinic and MIT. For more information on Sequoia's work in India and SE Asia, visit sequoiacap.com/india
About FMO
FMO is the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank. As a leading impact investor, FMO supports sustainable private sector growth in developing countries and emerging markets by investing in ambitious projects and entrepreneurs. FMO believes that a strong private sector leads to economic and social development and has a 50-year proven track-record of empowering people to employ their skills and improve their quality of life. FMO focuses on three sectors that have high development impact: financial institutions, energy, and agribusiness, food water. With a committed portfolio of EUR 10.4 billion spanning over 83 countries, FMO is one
of the larger bilateral private sector developments banks globally. For more information: please visit www.fmo.nl
About Omnivore:
Omnivore is a venture capital firm, based in India, which funds entrepreneurs building the future of agriculture and food systems. For further information on Omnivore, please visit: http://omnivore.vc
About AgFunder:
AgFunder is an online venture capital platform that invests in agrifoodtech startups globally. For further information on AgFunder, please visit: https://agfunder.com
Based in Gurgaon and Patna and founded in 2012 by IIT, IIM and NIT alumni, DeHaat is a technology-based platform offering full-stack agricultural services to farmers, including distribution of high quality agri inputs, customized farm advisory, access to financial services, and market linkages for selling their produce.
With an aim to becoming a one-stop solution that meet the needs of Indian farmers while helping them increase their profitability, the platform integrates a digital marketplace with a rural network of last mile service delivery centers. DeHaat’s annual revenue has grown by 3.5x since March ’19.The company plans to scale up to 2,000 rural retail centres for last mile delivery as well as farm produce aggregation and 1 million farmers on the network by 2021. DeHaat will use some of the new funding to automate its supply chain and build the next layer of data analytics to drive further supply chain efficiency.
Shashank Kumar, Co-Founder & CEO of DeHaat said, “We are excited to partner with Sequoia India and FMO as we drive towards one million farmers on the DeHaat platform. Sequoia’s deep expertise in B2B platforms and technology products combined with FMO’s expertise in agricultural value chain financing will help DeHaat accelerate its growth while delivering massive impact for the farmers we work with.”
Currently serving over 210,000 farmers across Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Odisha, DeHaat provides farmers with access to over 3,000 agricultural inputs, combined with AI-based customised crop advisory content of pest & disease management for major crops delivered via mobile app and call centers. The platform also aggregates corn, wheat, rice, fruits, and vegetables from farmers on their network and directly supplies to over 200 commodity bulk buyers, including retail chains, e-commerce players, FMCG giants, and SME food processors.
“Indian agriculture is a $350B+ industry powered by close to 100M small and independent farmers. This industry is on the brink of a massive transformation with ease of regulation, famers getting organized and increasing smart phone penetration and DeHaat is leveraging these trends to build the next-gen product in agricultural supply chain”, said Abhishek Mohan, VP, Sequoia Capital India LLP. “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.
Jaap Reinking, Director Private Equity at FMO, said “Increasing economic uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic is a grave concern to all. Especially in these challenging times it is important to continue our support for innovative businesses in emerging markets, and focus on accelerating sustainable development. That is why we are proud to announce our partnership with Green Agrevolution - DeHaat through the FMO Ventures Program. We look forward to supporting this Indian Agri Tech platform with our expertise in agricultural value chain financing and rural development programs.”
DeHaat earlier raised a USD 4 million (INR 29 crore) pre-Series A round in March 2019, led by Omnivore and AgFunder, which was topped up in May 2019 with an additional USD 3 million (INR 20 crore) of venture debt from Trifecta Capital. Dexter capital was the exclusive advisor of this funding round.
About DeHaat:
DeHaat is a technology based platform offering full stack agricultural services to farmers, including distribution of high quality agricultural inputs, customized farm advisory, access to financial services, and market linkages for selling their produce. For more information on DeHaat, please visit: http://agrevolution.in
About Sequoia India:
Sequoia India helps daring founders build legendary companies, from idea to IPO and beyond. Sequoia India operates in Southeast Asia and India where we actively partner with founders from a wide range of companies, across categories, including BYJUs, Carousell, Druva, GO- JEK, OYO Rooms, Tokopedia, Truecaller, Zilingo, Zomato and more. We spur founders to push the boundaries of what’s possible. In partnering with Sequoia, startups benefit from 47 years of tribal knowledge and lessons learned working with companies
like Airbnb, Alibaba, Apple, Dropbox, Google, JD.com, LinkedIn, Meituan and Stripe early on.
From the beginning, non-profits have been the backbone of our LP base, which means founders’ accomplishments make a meaningful difference. The majority of our profits – over $16 billion since 2000 alone – are returned to great causes, like the Ford Foundation, Mayo Clinic and MIT. For more information on Sequoia's work in India and SE Asia, visit sequoiacap.com/india
About FMO
FMO is the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank. As a leading impact investor, FMO supports sustainable private sector growth in developing countries and emerging markets by investing in ambitious projects and entrepreneurs. FMO believes that a strong private sector leads to economic and social development and has a 50-year proven track-record of empowering people to employ their skills and improve their quality of life. FMO focuses on three sectors that have high development impact: financial institutions, energy, and agribusiness, food water. With a committed portfolio of EUR 10.4 billion spanning over 83 countries, FMO is one
of the larger bilateral private sector developments banks globally. For more information: please visit www.fmo.nl
About Omnivore:
Omnivore is a venture capital firm, based in India, which funds entrepreneurs building the future of agriculture and food systems. For further information on Omnivore, please visit: http://omnivore.vc
About AgFunder:
AgFunder is an online venture capital platform that invests in agrifoodtech startups globally. For further information on AgFunder, please visit: https://agfunder.com
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