Chhavideep Singh
Source: TechCircle
Agricultural technology start-up, DeHaat has recently announced to have raised USD 30 million in funding from South Africa-based Prosus Ventures.
The funding was raised by DeHaat in its latest Series C financing round led by the venture investment arm of Prosus with participation from existing investors including Sequoia Capital India, Mumbai-based Venture Capital firm- Omnivore, Netherlands-based FMO and California-based AgFunder.
The Bihar-based agritech start-up is also known as Green Agrevolution which operates as an online marketplace for agricultural products or farm-based products and services. According to the company profile on CrunchBase, the total funding raised by the start-up till date amounts to USD 49.3 million which it has successfully bagged in over five financing rounds.
The agricultural sector in India has always struggled with finding the right input material to grow better yield. Seeds, fertilisers and right knowledge on how to harvest the produce has always been open knots in the country’s food supply chain. DeHaat or Agrevolution has taken the responsibility to solve this problem by creating a clean market chain, bringing institutional financiers, buyers and brands, all on the same platform. The service can be availed through a helpline number and is also available on the DeHaat mobile application, that too in regional languages as per convenience.
Let’s say, even after harvesting good quality produce, farmers find it very challenging to find the correct buyer for their produce, someone who buys in bulk and pays good value for their barter. This problem has been persistent in India as a result of which the majority produce is gone to waste and only about one-third produce finds its right value reaching potential buyers.
According to the company profile, the Bihar-based agritech start-up helps farmers to sell their produce in bulk to India’s business-to-business (B2B) marketplace including Zomato, Udaan and Reliance Fresh among many others, as mentioned in a report by TechCrunch.
All in all, DeHaat leverages technology to maximise farmer’s wealth by improving the efficiency of their sale to big bulk buyers. The start-up connects farmers to agricultural inputs of high quality that help them to produce a better yield. Seeds, fertilisers, pesticides and other crop protection services are all part of DeHaat’s operations.
According to a report by TechCrunch, Ashutosh Sharma, Head of India Investments, Prosus Ventures mentions in a statement the investment firm actively invests in start-ups around the globe that can significantly address important societal needs and DeHaat is one of those companies that enhance efficiency in the value chain of Indian agricultural sector.