Ag Tech Investments News

B2B agri-marketplace, Ninjacart, has secured $1 million in venture debt funding in an investment round led by Trifecta Capital. The Bengaluru based startup is planning to use the investment for strengthening the supply chain and invest in capital expenditure, stated the company. Operated by 63Ideas Infolabs, the company has raised a total of $9.5 million of disclosed funding.

Commenting on the investment, Nilesh Kothari, Co-Founder of Trifecta Capital said, “Ninjacart has done a great job in delivering fresh produce to retailers efficiently while removing non-value-adding middlemen to improve the earnings realised by farmers.” He further added, “We are excited to help them get even bigger and better in their journey, as they use our debt to invest in fulfillment, collection and distribution centres.”

Trifecta Capital, since its inception in 2015, has invested in over 25 companies, including PaperBoat, Rivigo, UrbanClap, BigBasket, among others.

Founded by Thirukumaran Nagarajan, Vasudevan Chinnathambi, Kartheeswaran K K, Sachin Jose and Sharath Loganathan in 2015, the company started as an online grocery delivery startup but later pivoted themselves to an B2B agri-marketing platform. The company provides a platform that connects farmers to businesses directly. They pick up fresh farm produce from the farmers and delivers it to businesses.

Commenting on the investment raised and how the company is going breakeven in a tier 1 city like Bengaluru, Thirukumaran Nagarajan said, “We need to prepare our company for the next level of growth and this necessitates investments in developing both our technology and physical infrastructure. Already nearing a city level break-even in Bengaluru, we are well equipped to raise debt capital and Trifecta has helped us ideally structure our financing needs.”

Ninjacart claims to have delivered over 150 tonnes of fruits and vegetables every day in Bengaluru. According to the release the company is planning to expand its operations to Chennai.

According to a recent published report, over 58 percent of the total rural households in India, depend on agriculture as their means of livelihood. The country’s GDP is expected to grow at 7.4 percent in 2018-2019. India being the second largest producer of food, the horticulture output in the country is expected to cross the 500 million tonnes mark.

Source: http://www.financialexpress.com/