B2B agritech startup AGRIM has raised $10 Mn in Series A funding. The round was led by Kalaari Capital, with participation from existing investors Omnivore, India Quotient, and Accion Venture Labs. Axis Bank too joined the round as part of its Bharat Banking initiative.
AGRIM plans to use this funding for talent acquisition, embedded fintech product development, and scaling up operations. The startup expects to clock annualised GMV (gross merchandising value) of $100 Mn in 2022.
It further targets to increase stock-keeping units by 10x, to reach 250,000 SKUs across agri-input categories, providing retailers with a vast selection on the platform. As agri-input retailers and manufacturers suffer from steep working capital requirements, AGRIM said, it will soon be launching financial services to ease their burden while ensuring optimum stocking.
Gurgaon-based AGRIM was founded in April 2020 by serial entrepreneurs and IIT Kharagpur alumni Mukul Garg and Avi Jain. Prior to AGRIM, Mukul was head of growth at Blackbuck, a leading trucking platform.
Avi is an IIM Calcutta alumnus. He worked in investment banking with Nomura, and then cofounded Taazu, a corporate travel platform, which he exited in 2019. The startup said it is hiring for its financial services team, from various fintech unicorns.
Mukul Garg, cofounder and CEO of AGRIM, said, “In the last 15 months, we have achieved product-market fit. This investment will help us expand exponentially into new categories and geographies. Given the unit-level profitability, most funds will be used to bring rock stars onboard and launch embedded fintech services for our retailers.”
The startup said it is building the largest digital platform for India’s $50 Bn agri-inputs industry by connecting retailers directly with manufacturers and providing all parties with solutions for distribution, credit, logistics, and marketing. AGRIM works across agri-input categories, including seeds, fertilizer, crop protection, animal nutrition, and farm implements.
AGRIM’s offerings come into play where retailers grapple with a limited assortment of goods, poor availability, opaque pricing, spurious product quality, and the high cost of working capital.
Likewise, agri-input manufacturers struggle to grow their businesses, increase the penetration of their products across geographies, manage working capital, and optimise logistics.
It said its digital platform cuts across the existing multi-tier distribution system and delivers quality inputs via efficient fulfillment services. AGRIM said it currently works across 500 districts, with more than 2,500 manufacturers and 170,000 retailers on the platform.
Vamshi Krishna Reddy, partner at Kalaari Capital, said, “We, at Kalaari, are excited about playing a role in AGRIM’s vision of transforming the agri-input retail market in India. AGRIM’s goal of building a strong, tech-enabled ecosystem for small retailers of crucial agricultural supplies can transform the way agri-inputs are sourced across the country while ensuring better quality and access to products for agri-based communities.”
It is here to be noted that, the Union Budget 2022 had good mention about the agritech industry. During the Budget speech, the FM mentioned key initiatives promising growth of the agriculture sector with agritech playing a crucial role.
The FM in her Budget speech had said that the government would promote the use of ‘kisan drones’ in areas related to crop assessment and spraying of pesticides– an opportune area for Indian agritech startups.
However, agritech as a sector although not as lucky as fintech and edtech in fetching funding, yet, it is still getting its due recognition it seems. For example, last month we saw agritech startup Arya.Ag receiving $60 Mn Series C funding in a mix of equity and debt financing led by Asia Impact SA, Lightrock India and Quona Capital. It also received debt financing from the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) among others.
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