Agritech platform FarMart on Thursday said that it has raised $2.4 million as a part of its pre-series A funding round led by Omidyar Network India and Avaana Capital.
Existing investors Indian Angel Network and LetsVenture also participated as part of the round.
According to the company, it will use the funds to focus on product development, user base expansion and to scale its market linkage capabilities.
FarMart helps agri-retailers serve farmers better through its software platform and provides them access to information, market linkages and input.
“Through our product-first approach, we have been able to create a scalable, trust-based distribution network that helps us gain access to farmers at the first mile. With this funding round, we seek to further our mission to become the largest online platform connecting food businesses with over 10 million farmers through our nationwide retailer network by 2025,” said Alekh Sanghera, co-founder and chief executive officer of FarMart.
Retailers can use the platform to digitize their workflow and grow their businesses by offering agri-marketing to farmers.
“With its innovative, tech-led, merchant-centric and distribution-first model, FarMart has set out on a journey to create an agri platform that helps increase value realization and income for farmers. They enable better access to markets, aggregate produce using existing infrastructure and are using data at the core of their decision-making,” said Madhav Tandan, director, Omidyar Network India.
Within nine months of launch, FarMart has onboarded 10,000 retailers and has access to more than 400,000 farmers across 15 states in the country. End buyers also use the platform to source the best product at the right price from farmers directly without involving multiple intermediaries.
“Alekh and Mehtab have created a business model that encapsulates our view on how technology can connect various stakeholders to improve realizations for farmers and offerings for buyers, while also building a scalable, defensible, and profitable business model. We are encouraged by the traction achieved for their micro-entrepreneur-led market linkage platform,” Shruti Srivastava, principal, Avaana Capital.
FarMart, also coordinates pricing, logistics, quality control and payment via its platform for agri-retailers.