5 Agritech startups that raised funding in 2020
The agricultural sector is one of the primary contributors to the Indian economy. Investments in the agritech sector are likely to exceed $ 500 million in the next two years with the recently funded startups scaling up well for further rounds and also because the scalability potential remains high.
Here are 5 startups which got funded in 2020 inspite of the pandemic situation:
Bijak
B2B trade platform serving the agricultural sector, Bijak, in April 2020, raised $11.8 million in its Series A round from its existing investors, including Omnivore Partners, and Tempo Ventures, Bi Fund, among others. Founded in May 2019 it aims to bridge the information asymmetry and lack of accountability across trade in agricultural activities. It enables traders, wholesalers, and food processors to keep a ledger of their transactions, access transparent pricing, optimise logistics, and improve their working capital cycles. The company’s proprietary app is available in several local languages, and currently caters to the country’s agricultural states such as Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, etc.
Otipy
Otipy (a social commerce platform by Crofarm) launched in February 2020 by Varun Khurana started to work closely with reseller partners (mainly women) to up the supply chain of fresh produce in India. The company is currently working with 500+ partner resellers mainly women across Delhi-NCR and is already serving over 50,000 consumers. It further plans to onboard 5000 women within Delhi NCR and provide them opportunities to earn from home. Otipy focuses on-demand harvesting as per predicted demand to keep minimum wastage through state-of-the-art technology used for procurement, distribution, and delivery. Backed by Crofarm, Otipy has recently raised $1M from IPV and plans to expand its reseller base in Delhi/NCR, and build deeper relationships with the farmer ecosystem.
DeHaat
Gurugram and Patna-based agritech platform DeHaat has raised Series A funding of $12 million led by Sequoia Capital. DeHaat offers an online marketplace to farmers. It is a technology-based platform offering full-stack agricultural services to farmers, including distribution of high quality agri inputs, customised farm advisory, access to financial services, and market linkages for selling their produce.
Clover
Bengaluru-based greenhouse agritech startup Clover on Tuesday announced that it had raised Rs 7 crore in venture debt from Alteria Capital. Clover partners with farmers across India and markets premium quality, branded, greenhouse-grown fresh produce through B2B and B2C channels. Clover claims that its business model centres around demand-led cultivation, a managed farm network, and full-stack agronomy.
Eggoz
Eggoz raised Rs 2.5 crore as part of its seed funding to fuel its growth and expansion plans. The round saw the participation of investors like Tracxn Labs, Angellist, Tri-Deep Capital, founders of Letstransport, and angel investors, along with existing investors — Narendra Sankar, Sunil Mishra, and Vishal Sharma. Founded in December 2017, it provides deep integration services to egg farmers at several locations in north India, using cutting-edge nutritional engineering and technology to produce eggs.
