DeHaat, a young Indian agribusiness company, raises $ 4.35 million led by Omnivore



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DeHaat, an online marketplace for agricultural products and services, said it raised 30 billion crore during a round of investor-led financing at Omnivore Impact. AgFunder, an American investor in agriculture, and several angel investors also participated in the Precedence Round A.

Owned by Green AgRevolution Pvt. Ltd., DeHaat is a technology platform that provides farmers with end-to-end agricultural services, including the distribution of high quality agricultural inputs, personalized advice, access to financial services and commercial links for the sale of their products. .

Founded by Shashank Kumar, a former Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, the start-up currently works with about 56,000 farmers, mainly in North and East India, including in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha.

"We decided to focus here because it is the most fertile belt in India, but the poor connectivity that existed before led farmers to be neglected. This area has the highest proportion of smallholder farms, of 2 hectares or less, "Kumar said during a phone interview.

She plans to continue focusing on the same area and plans to reach more than 250,000 farmers over the next 12 months with the new capital. He also plans to set up 14 regional warehouses to stockpile stocks, although he does not have any yet, Kumar said. After about a year, he plans to expand into Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.

This is the first institutional tour of DeHaat. Previously, he had collected around 50 ¤ lakh in 2016 from the IIM Calcutta Innovation Center and 50 ₹ lakh in 2014 from angel investors.

DeHaat expects to reach a business turnover of 45 million crowns during fiscal year 19, up from 21 billion for fiscal year 18, with a positive profit before interest , taxes and depreciation. In the current cycle, DeHaat aims for growth three to four times over the next 18 to 24 months.

In its bid to become a one-stop shop for all farmers and related goods and services, it plans to launch farm credit and crop insurance services later this year.

Jinesh Shah, managing partner of Omnivore, said, "Increasing the profitability of smallholders is the most important priority in rural India and DeHaat has developed a scalable and sustainable model to do just that." Omnivore is a venture capital fund that invests significantly in technology startups focused on food, agriculture and the rural economy and is raising a second $ 100 million fund. $ 46 million, which he closed for the first time last February.

The The article was first published on livemint.com.

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