Green Agrevolution which operates agricultural technology startup DeHaat, said on Tuesday it has raised $12 million in a Series A funding round.
Sequoia Capital India led the funding round, the Gurugram-based startup said in a statement. Dutch development bank FMO, Omnivore and AgFunder also contributed.
Now DeHaat runs an online marketplace for farm products and services. It was founded by IIT-Delhi graduate Shashank Kumar, IIM-Ahmedabad’s Shyam Sundar Singh and NIT-Jamshedpur alumnus Amrendra Singh in 2012.
The funding will be used to automate its supply process and build its data analytics infrastructure to increase the efficiency of the chain. The startup also said that it is aiming to scale up to 2,000 rural retail centres to focus on last-mile delivery and bring a million farmers on board its platform by 2021.
“Sequoia’s deep expertise in B2B platforms and technology products combined with FMO’s expertise in agricultural value chain financing will help DeHaat accelerate its growth while delivering massive impact for the farmers we work with,” stated Kumar.
Meanwhile, Abhishek Mohan, VP, Sequoia Capital India, said, “It was confident in its investment because of DeHaat’s ability to create brand loyalty among its partner farmers and its technological platform.”
In March last year, DeHaat had raised $4 million in a pre-Series A round from Omnivore and the United States-based AgFunder. In May, DeHaat received Rs 20 crore in venture debt from Trifecta Capital.
Further in May 2019,: DeHaat acqui-hired farm management services provider VezaMart. At the time, the agri-tech startup said the move gave it access to new regions, newer farmers’ network in western Uttar Pradesh and a dedicated team with entrepreneurial experience in the agri-tech sector.