Agritech startup DeHaat has raised $30 million (₹219 crore) in Series C funding round led by Prosus Ventures.

RTP Global and existing investors Sequoia Capital India, FMO, Omnivore and AgFunder also participated in the round.

DeHaat’s online platform provides full-stack agricultural services to farmers and has till date raised $46 million (₹336 crore).

Advisory and networking

The Patna and Gurugram-based startup was founded by Shashank Kumar and Manish Kumar, both alumni of IITs. DeHaat’s platform provides farmers with agricultural inputs, a network of potential bulk buyers and retailers and AI-based customized crop advisory content of pest and diseases.

It manages delivery through its app and a network of call centers in rural areas. The startup offers more than 4,000 agricultural inputs and supplies to over 500 buyers including retail chains, ecommerce players, FMCG giants and SME food processors.

Some of its leading buyers include B2B marketplace Udaan, Reliance Fresh and food delivery platform Zomato.

Unique solution for Indian farmers

Speaking on the development, Galina Chifina, Partner, RTP Global said, “We have been watching DeHaat for 18 months and have been impressed with the speed of development that the team is demonstrating.”

“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. We’re excited to be on-board and lend our support.”

With the fresh capital DeHaat aims to aggregate 10 million (1 crore) onto its network and help them increase their profitability.

DeHaat has grown 3.5X annually over the past two years and crated a network of 1,300 DeHaat microentrepreneurs for last mile delivery. It serves more than 3,60,000 farmers located across Jharkhand, Bihar, UP and Odisha.

Also read: Agritech startup Gramophone raises $3.4 million from Siana Capital

Otipy, the social e-commerce platform for fresh produce has stated that it is in active discussions to raise $10 million (₹72.9 crore) this year.

This fund will be used to empower more resellers and expand its business across India.

Otipy is part of the larger platform Crofarm, which was founded by Varun Khurana and Rohit Arora in 2016. It delivered farm produce directly to the retailers till June 2020, when it launched Otipy, a B2B2C e-commerce platform for the general consumer.

Otipy has already raised $2 million (₹14.5 crore) from Inflection Point Ventures and the Smile Group.

“We have a history and deep understanding of fresh produce that we have leveraged to build a social commerce model that creates earning opportunities for women and stores, helps farmers, and provides fresher, more nutritious produce to consumers at a lesser price,” Otipy co-founder Varun Khurana said.

In the last 8-9 months, their platform has supported over 2,500 women and stores as resellers in Delhi and NCR region. They are planning to expand to other cities of the country as well. Resellers/leaders earn a commission of 10% on the items sold, which the company claims be the highest among the social commerce brands in India

Currently the startup is processing over 5,000 daily orders from 1,00,000 consumers in NCR. It will launch other farm products on its platform, which has already included dairy and grocery products.

Also read : Agritech startup Arya raises $21 million to expand warehouse facilities for farmers

QZense Labs, an agri-tech startup which focusses on quality control and management of fresh produce, raised ₹4.5 crore ($614,209) in a seed round led by Venture Catalysts.

The investors of this round were Manish Modi – MD, Mastermind Capital, and Vedant Loyalka – Chairman, Curae Health. Other investors who participated were 9Unicorns, The Chennai Angels, Entrepreneur First, and Lumis Partners.

Also read: Venture Catalysts will invest Rs 1000 crore in 150 startups

Bengaluru-based QZense Labs was founded by Rubal Chib and Dr Srishti Batra in 2019. It assesses the quality of fruits and vegetables through a non-destructive and accurate measuring system.

It has produced two products which use their software platform. One is the Q-Scan, a handheld device which grades the internal quality of a fruit or vegetable through scanning. The other is Q-Log, which is an olfactory logger to measure the quality of the produce during logistics and storage.

Their IoT (Internet of Things) enabled devices can become practical end-to-end instruments, for quality assessment during transport and storage of fresh produce.

A Market disrupter

As per the statements released by the founders, the fresh capital will be used for expansion by scaling the team and accelerating their market endeavors.

QZense aims to empower food businesses and retailers to minimize the product loss and ensure the optimum margins of freshness.

Apoorv Ranjan Sharma, Co-founder & President – Venture Catalysts & 9Unicorns, said, “The digital boom has undeniably put the Indian agritech industry on the map. The space is witnessing new developments every day, each innovation addressing specific pain points in the sector. One such pain point is managing the quality of fresh produce and minimizing its wastage. qZense is aiming to address and resolve this pertinent issue by leveraging the power of digital technology.”

It is expected to disrupt the market with its unique innovation. Already, farmers are using it to measure the sugar content during harvest of sugarcane and vanilla.

Also read: Agritech startups, one of the most invested sector