Agri Analytics Startup DeHaat Raises $12 Million In A Sequoia-Led Funding

DeHaat, an Agritech platform, has recently raised $12 million, which is approximately ₹83 crore in a Series A funding led by Sequoia India. The funding was also in participation with FMO, the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank; alongside the existing investors, Omnivore and AgFunder have also participated in this round.

DeHaat, an agri-tech platform, helps farmers in accessing agri inputs and financial services, and helping them sell their products. The firm is planning to use the raised funds to automate its supply chain and build the next layer of data analytics. This will, in turn, help in enhancing the drive supply chain efficiency, explained by Shashank Kumar, the co-founder and chief executive of the startup.

Founded by IIT, IIM and NIT alumni, in 2012, this Gurugram and Patna-based firm — DeHaat is a technology-based platform which has been offering full-stack agricultural services. The platform is aiding farmers with secured thousands of agri-input products, including seeds and fertilisers. 

“We have built a comprehensive database of crop tests to offer advice to farmers,” Kumar said. Earlier, in Mar 2019, the company had raised $4 million in pre-Series A round in an Omnivore and AgFunder-led funding, which was topped up with an additional $3 million of venture debt from Trifecta Capital in May 2019.

According to Kumar, Sequoia’s deep expertise in B2B platforms and technology products combined with FMO’s expertise in agricultural value chain financing will help DeHaat in accelerating its growth while delivering massive impact for the farmers we work with.

The company claimed that currently, it is providing services to over 2,10,000 farmers across Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Odisha.

The startup currently operates about 443 retail centres in eastern India, enabling about 2.1 lakh farmers to access over 3,000 agri inputs and customised crop advisory, combined with AI-based customised crop advisory content of pest and disease management via mobile app and call centres.

The platform also aggregates products like corn, wheat, rice, fruits, and vegetables from farmers on their network. It directly supplies over 200 commodity bulk buyers, including retail chains, e-commerce players, FMCG giants, and SME food processors.

The company also plans to expand with 2,000 rural retail centres in an effort to create a last-mile delivery as well as farm produce aggregation and 1 million farmers on the network by 2021.