B2B agritech firm Ninjacart bags fresh venture debt funding

Business-to-business agri-marketing platform Ninjacart, which had received a big-ticket investment from Tiger Global earlier this year, has raised fresh capital in venture debt funding.

Ninjacart has raised Rs 30 crore ($4.17 million) from venture debt firm Trifecta Capital, according to the company's filings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

Trifecta, which had first invested in Ninjacart early last year, invested another $2.88 million in May this year, according to VCCEdge, the research arm of Mosaic Digital.

In April, Ninjacart raised Rs 625 crore ($90 million) for a 26.47% stake from Tiger Global Management LLC in a biggest funding in the agritech segment. It raised $35 million in a Series B funding round led by venture capital firm Accel and Swiss investor Syngenta Ventures in December last year.

Ninjakart, which is operated by 63Ideas Infolabs Pvt. Ltd, was founded in July 2015 by Kartheeswaran KK, Nagarajan, Sharath Loganathan, Ashutosh Vikram, Sachin P J, and Vasudevan Chinnathambi, who have earlier worked at Commonfloor, OlaCabs, HT Media, Verizon Labs, Taxiforsure, and others.

The company initially began as a hyper-local grocery delivery firm but then shifted to a B2B setup. Farmers can sell vegetables and fruits directly to business establishments such as shops, retailers and restaurants via the startup’s platform.

A slew of agri-tech startups have raised funds in recent years, as entrepreneurs and investors look for solutions to solve myriad problems in India’s agriculture sector.

Just earlier this week, VCCircle reported that social venture capital fund Insitor Impact Asia Fund and impact investor Omnivore are all set to invest in an agritech startup that operates a platform for buying and selling some non-perishable commodities.

Agricxlab, Eruvaka, CropIn, Crofarm, LeanAgri and Ecozen Solutions are among the agritech startups that have also raised funding over the past year.

India’s growing agricultural-technology segment is likely to record more mid-stage funding transactions and strategic deals in coming years, as investors look to back entrepreneurs trying to solve pressing problems in the critical farm sector, according to industry executives.