Sequoia-backed DeHaat buys FarmGuide

DeHaat, which operates an online marketplace for farm products and services, has announced the acquisition of software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform FarmGuide.

The announcement comes a little over a month after VCCircle exclusively reported that DeHaat had signed an agreement to acquire the business-to-business firm.

DeHaat co-founder and CEO Shashank Kumar said FarmGuide’s spatial and data science tech will integrate with the acquirer.

FarmGuide’s founding team has joined DeHaat.

FarmGuide, set up in 2016 by Nikhil Toshniwal and Ankit Gupta, says its SaaS platform uses satellite-based data for providing solutions including boundary and crop advisory services. 

Around a week after VCCircle reported an agreement to acquire FarmGuide, DeHaat said it raised $30 million (around Rs 220 crore) in a Series C funding round led by Prosus Ventures. Other participants in that round included RTP Global, Sequoia Capital India, FMO, Omnivore, and AgFunder.

DeHaat, operated by Green Agrevolution Pvt Ltd, was set up in 2012 by Kumar, Amrendra Singh, Shyam Sundar, and Adarsh Srivastav. The company says its platform offers full-stack agricultural services including input distribution, customised advisory, access to financial services, and market linkages for selling produce.

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 round, DeHaat in March 2019 raised $4 million (Rs 27.5 crore) in pre-Series A funding from Omnivore and US-based AgFunder. 

In May that year, it received Rs 20 crore in venture debt from Trifecta Capital. Also that month, the company acqui-hired farm management services provider VezaMart.