New Delhi, NFAPost: DeHaat, the technology-based platform offering end-to-end agricultural services to farmers in India said it has raised $115 million in Series D funding, led by Belgium based investment firm Sofina and Lightrock India.
Temasek co-invested in the round, with participation from existing investors Prosus, RTP Global, Sequoia Capital India and FMO. Dexter Capital and Vertices Partners were the advisors to this funding round.
DeHaat Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Shashank Kumar said DeHaat is on a mission of building the world’s largest Agritech platform.
“We have raised $157 million from marquee investors in the last 30 months and our team has grown to a brigade of 850+ professionals with deep expertise of Growth & Strategy, Supply chain, Technology & Agricultural science. Last 7 months have been phenomenal with 5x growth for DeHaat. Hence we are now well poised to replicate the success in all major agriculture clusters of India in the next 12-15 months,” said Shashank Kumar.
Based in Gurgaon and Patna and founded in 2012 by IIT, IIM & NIT alumni Amrendra Singh, Shyam Sundar, Adarsh Srivastav & Shashank Kumar, DeHaat is a technology-based business to farmers (B2F) platform that offers full-stack agricultural services to farmers, including distribution of high-quality agricultural inputs, customised farm advisory, access to financial services, and market linkages for selling their produce.
With an aim to driving efficiency & transparency in this US$ 350 billion industry, DeHaat has been building a digitised network of farmers as well as last-mile service providers & providing direct access to farmers through its physical as well as digital platform.
DeHaat has currently built a rural retail network of more than 3,000 DeHaat microentrepreneurs for last-mile delivery as well as aggregation, serving more than 650,000 farmers located across Bihar, UP, Jharkhand & Odisha. DeHaat has now started expanding to new geographies like MP & Rajasthan with a complete 360 degree set of agri offerings for farmers.
Earlier this year DeHaat acquired Farm Guide – a SaaS based platform to provide satellite-based insights & advisory to farmers. The current tech team has grown to 120, building unique AI/ML based solutions related to crop advisory, last mile supply chain traceability & B2B SaaS agritech platform for input sellers as well as output buyers.
Sofina Principal Yana Kachurina said through our due diligence, Sofina became convinced that DeHaat is bringing substantial value-add to the farming community in India.
“The uniqueness of its full-stack approach combined with the “phygital” go-to-market strategy further reaffirmed our view that the company is on track to become a significant player in the farming industry in India,” said Yana Kachurina.
Lightrock India Partner Vaidhehi Ravindran said the company has been following DeHaat’s progress through the years and are impressed with their steep growth trajectory combined with a strong network of micro-entrepreneurs.
“Through innovative social engineering and tech-led execution, DeHaat has built the largest first mile network for farmers and is well positioned to help transform agriculture by improving yields and farmer income,” said Vaidhehi Ravindran.
DeHaat has emerged as the largest Indian agritech player with its unique full-stack approach while connecting all types of agri businesses (input sellers, output buyers, cattle feed manufacturers, financial institutions, warehousing companies) to the farming community. There are more than 850 unique agribusiness entities currently active on the platform, which are getting last-mile access through the DeHaat platform in a transparent and efficient manner.
The company has raised this round within nine months of the last round, and has completed two strategic acquisitions so far for inorganic growth. Institutional investors Omnivore Partners and Pi Capital (family fund of Narrottam Shekhsaria Group) who invested in the first institutional round in 2019 have exited partially in the current round.
Sofina is a European, family-controlled, investment company listed on Euronext Brussels. Sofina invests from a permanent pool of capital, both directly as growth investor and indirectly through VC private equity funds. Sofina invests globally and focuses on four key sectors: consumer & retail, digital, healthcare and education.
Lightrock India, formerly Aspada, invests in transformative, technology-led industry leaders of tomorrow in themes and sectors with high social impact potential. Lightrock India invests in sectors across Food and Agri, logistics and mobility, education, healthcare and financial services. Portfolio includes companies such as Vivriti, Aye Finance, Capital Float, Waycool, Porter, Arya, Dunzo, Pharmeasy, Kauvery, Amp energy, Cuemath and Eupheus.
Temasek is a global investment company with a net portfolio value of S$381bn (US$283b) as at 31 March 2021. Headquartered in Singapore, it has 13 offices in 9 countries around the world. The Temasek Charter defines Temasek’s three roles as an Investor, Institution and Steward.
Prosus is a global consumer internet group and one of the largest technology investors in the world. Operating and investing globally in markets with long-term growth potential, Prosus builds leading consumer internet companies that empower people and enrich communities.
The group is focused on building meaningful businesses in the online classifieds, food delivery, and payments and fintech sectors in markets including India, Russia, and Brazil. Through its ventures team, Prosus invests in areas including EdTech and health, Prosus actively seeks new opportunities to partner with exceptional entrepreneurs who are using technology to improve people’s daily lives.
Every day, millions of people use the products and services of companies that Prosus has invested in, acquired or built, including Avito, Brainly, BYJU’S, Bykea, Codecademy, DappRadar, dott, ElasticRun, eMAG, Eruditus, Honor, iFood, Klar, LazyPay, letgo, Meesho, Movile, OLX, PayU, Red Dot Payment, Remitly, SimilarWeb, Shipper, Skillsoft, SoloLearn, Swiggy, and Udemy.
Hundreds of millions of people have made the platforms of its associates a part of their daily lives. For listed companies where we have an interest, please see: Tencent (www.tencent.com; SEHK:00700), Mail.ru (www.corp.mail.ru; LSE:MAIL), Trip.com Group Limited (“Trip.com”) (NASDAQ:TCOM), and DeliveryHero (www.deliveryhero.com; Xetra:DHER).
Today, Prosus companies and associates help improve the lives of around a fifth of the world’s population.
Prosus has a primary listing on Euronext Amsterdam (AEX:PRX) and a secondary listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (XJSE:PRX), and is majority owned by Naspers.
