Prosus Ventures lead $30 mn Series C round in agri-tech startup DeHaat

Green Agrevolution Pvt Ltd, the Gurugram based company that operates farm products and services focused marketplace DeHaat, has raised $30 million (around Rs 220 crore) in a Series C funding round led by Prosus Ventures.

Prosus Ventures, the investment arm of South African internet and media conglomerate Naspers, has been a prolific investor across sectors in India’s startup ecosystem, with bets including edtech firm Eruditus, social commerce platform Meesho, and food delivery unicorn Swiggy.

RTP Global and existing backers Sequoia Capital India, Dutch development bank FMO, Omnivore, and AgFunder participated in the round.

The development comes just under a week after VCCircle reported that the agri-tech startup was on the verge of seeing a large spike in its valuation through an acquisition, its second.

The company was set up in 2012 by Shashank Kumar, Amrendra Singh, Shyam Sundar, and Adarsh Srivastav. The company says its platform offers full-stack agricultural services to farmers, including the distribution of agricultural inputs, customised farm advisory, access to financial services, and market linkages for selling produce.

It will use the capital it has raised in this round to enhance its technological infrastructure, as well as expand to different parts of India. Currently, DeHaat maintains a presence in states including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Odisha, and says it serves more than 3.6 lakh farmers across these regions.

“Agritech is exploding in India and DeHaat is building a unique infrastructure platform and is one of the only companies delivering an end-to-end solution for the farming community in India,” RTP Global partner Galina Chifina said.

According to VCCEdge, DeHaat reported consolidated net sales of Rs 42.58 crore for the 2018-19 financial year, with losses of Rs 2.55 crore for the same period.

In April last year, the agri-tech startup raised $12 million (around Rs 90.75 crore) in a Series A funding round led by Sequoia Capital India. Prior to its Series A raise, DeHaat in March 2019 raised $4 million (Rs 27.5 crore) in a pre-Series A round from Omnivore and the US-based AgFunder. In May, it received Rs 20 crore in venture debt from Trifecta Capital.

Also in May that year, the company acqui-hired farm management services provider VezaMart. At the time, Kumar said the two companies had a similar approach to farm management.