Stride Ventures infuses second round of debt in agritech startup Stellapps

Stride Ventures on Wednesday said it has invested in Stellapps Technologies, an agritech startup that offers a full stack internet of things (IoT) solution called SmartMoo to digitise supply chains in the dairy sector.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The investment comes six months after the venture lender infused its first set of debt capital into the startup. According to regulatory filings, the agritech company received $697,725 then.

Excluding the latest investment, Stellapps has raised a total of $18.5 million from a mix of equity and debt investors, according to VCCEdge data. Blume Ventures, Omnivore Capital and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are among its other investors.

Founded in 2011 by Ranjith Mukundan, Praveen Nale, Ravishankar Shiroor, Ramakrishna Adukuri, and Venkatesh Seshasayee, the IIT Madras incubated startup processes 10 million litres of milk daily using its real-time system, according to a statement.

It claims to use advanced analytics and artificial intelligence through SmartMoo to create a network between financial and insurance institutions, veterinary services and cattle nutrition providers in the dairy farming ecosystem.

The startup’s clientele includes dairy farms, cooperatives and private dairies operating in India and Europe, the statement added.

The SmartMoo suite of solutions comprises Moon for herd management and cattle monitoring; SmartAMCU and SmartCC for milk procurement; ConTrak for cold chain management; mooPay for fintech and insurtech solutions; and mooFlow and mooOpt for data analytics.

“Stellapps is revolutionising the Indian dairy sector through their digital solutions across the value chain. Despite the current COVID situation, we see Stellapps ramping up operations and would continue to support them with capital as they scale up,” Abhinav Suri, senior partner at Stride Ventures, said.

The New Delhi-based venture debt firm intends to be a strategic partner in the startup’s journey with its customised offerings and relationships across banks and corporates, the statement added. The deal marks its third investment disclosure so far.

Read: Stride Ventures marks first close of debut fund

On Monday, it said it had invested $1.3 million in Diptab Ventures, the parent operator to intra-city logistics marketplace LetsTransport.