India-based agricultural services provider DeHaat received $12m in series A funding yesterday from investors including media, data and investment group AgFunder.
Venture capital firm Sequoia Capital India led the round, which was also backed by Dutch development bank FMO and VC firm Omnivore. It came in the wake of $4.2m of seed capital from AgFunder and Omnivore in March 2019.
DeHaat runs an online platform that helps farmers source products such as seeds, fertiliser and equipment in addition to accessing data that can help inform their business and farming decisions. Institutional buyers can also source data to support their commodity trading practices.
The funding will support the growth of the company’s retail network to some 2,000 centres by 2021 as it seeks to expand its customer base from 210,000 farmers to 1 million, strengthen its big data technology and automate more of its operations.
Michael Dean, founding partner of AgFunder, told AgFunder News: “DeHaat continues to go from strength to strength and it is testimony to [founder and CEO Shashank Kumar] and the whole DeHaat team that they have been able to convert their vision and focus on rapid growth to become the preeminent supply chain player in India.”
