Agri-tech startup DeHaat raises venture debt from Trifecta

Patna-headquartered Green Agrevolution Pvt. Ltd, which operates online marketplace for farmers DeHaat, has raised Rs 20 crore in venture debt from Trifecta Capital. 

The company will use the debt capital to pilot financial services, such as credit and insurance services, for farmers on its platform, it said in a statement.

“Our larger goal is to become a one-stop destination for Indian farmers which can meet all their agricultural needs. This funding from Trifecta Capital will provide us additional capacity as we introduce financial services to farmers on our platform,” said co-founder Shashank Kumar, an IIT-Delhi alumnus.

Kumar co-founded DeHaat in 2012 along with NIT Jamshedpur alumnus Amrendra Singh, IIM Ahmedabad's Shyam Sundar Singh, and Adarsh Srivastav.

The company had raised Rs 50 lakh from IIM Calcutta Innovation Centre in 2016. In March this year, DeHaat raised Rs 27.5 crore in equity funding from impact investor Omnivore, US-based agriculture investor AgFunder and Zomato co-founder Pankaj Chaddah’s family office. 

DeHaat provides farmers across Bihar, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh with access to farm inputs including seeds, fertilisers and equipment. It also provides crop advisory services and helps farmers sell their produce to institutional buyers through its collection centres.

The platform has a base of one lakh farmers, half of whom were taken on board over the past three months in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

“DeHaat has a strong hold on unit economics and an amazing proposition for farmers as well as other value chain players,” said Rahul Khanna,managing partner at Trifecta Capital in a statement. 

Other agri-tech deals 

 April 2019: Business-to-business agricultural marketing company NinjaCart raised $90 million from US-based Tiger Global Management.

April 2019: Artifical intelligence-focused agri-tech company Intello Labs raised $2 million from Nexus Venture Partners and impact investor Omnivore.

March 2019: Pune-based direct-to-farmer mobile retail platform AgroStar raised $27 million led by Bertelsmann India.