Food supply software platform FarMart has raised $10 million as a part of its Series A funding round led by Matrix Partners India, the company said on Thursday.
The round also saw participation from Innoven Capital and existing investors Omidyar Network India, Avaana Capital, and 500 Startups.
Angel investors participating in the round include Amit Lakhotia, founder, Park+; Jitendra Gupta, founder and chief executive officer (CEO), Jupiter; KP Balaraj, founder, WestBridge Capital and Sequoia Capital India, OfBusiness founder’s fund; Revant Bhate and Dhyanesh Shah, co-founders, Mosiac Wellness
The funds raised will be used to expand FarMart’s distribution network across the country, scale product capabilities as well as grow the team. The round also provides an exit for its early investors Indian Angel Network and LetsVenture. FarMart’s fundraising announcement comes soon after its $2.4 million pre-Series A funding in June.
FarMart is a micro-software-as-as-service (SaaS) platform for food supply. Its mobile app allows agri-retailers to serve their farmers better by providing access to information, market linkages and input. Large food businesses leverage FarMart’s technology and distribution network to source quality produce directly from the farmers at reasonable prices.
“This fundraise is a true reflection of the vision we have at FarMart, which is to build an operating system for the agribusiness community in India, starting with agri-retailers who are at the core of our business. Our remarkable growth over the past few months is testament to our thesis of building a product-first and an asset-light business, driven by our amazing team,” said Alekh Sanghera, co-founder, FarMart.
Since launching the market linkage platform six months back, the company has scaled its network to over 15,000 active agri-input retailers and 750,000 farmers who have shipped over 30,000 tonnes of produce on the FarMart platform.
“We are excited to continue supporting FarMart on their mission to create an innovative asset-light, tech-led model built to help the company with its strategy of helping agri-retailers and farmers increase their incomes. In less than a year, the company has shown impressive growth in its merchant base and revenue while also working towards creating meaningful lives for the farmers and agri-input retailers they work with,” said Madhav Tandan, director, Omidyar Network India.
The FarMart platform currently has over 100 business buyers including ITC, Olam, and Cargill.
“We are big believers of Alekh & Mehtab’s vision of creating a capital-efficient and seamless food distribution network for the agri-retailer and the farmer community. FarMart’s tech-led scalable model makes them well-positioned to disrupt the $300 billion agriculture market and their extremely strong growth over the last six months is a testament to their model and execution. We’re excited to be a part of this disruptive journey with the FarMart team!,” said Sudipto Sannigrahi, vice president, Matrix India.
Source: Mint