Agri Startup DeHaat Acquihires VezaMart To Expand Reach To Farmers

Patna-based agritech startup, DeHaat, which connects farmers to suppliers and buyers has acquired VezaMart, a platform which builds farm management solutions for farmers. After the acquisition, the team at VexaMart will continue developing solutions for farmers.

Speaking to YourStory, Harendra Kumar, the co-founder of VezaMart said that the shared goals and values between the two companies on approaching farmers to provide better facilities was the reason that they decided to join hands for a much larger scale and impact.

Dehaat helps farmers get direct access to seeds, fertilisers and crop protection mechanisms. It also aids in collecting produce at its 162 centres and provides facilities such as daily pricing display, primary processing and logistics. It claims to have collaborated with 50,000 new farmers across UP and Bihar to reach the milestone of having of 100,000 farmers on its platform. It now plans to reach out to 1 Mn farmers by 2021, and this is where the assets and workforce of Vezamart might come handy.

VezaMart has listed over 700 agri input SKUs, has an exhaustive crop pest database for crop advisory, and over 120 institutional buyers. Shashank Kumar, the co-founder and CEO of DeHaat, feels that this collaboration will help DeHaat grow its network of farmers in an accelerated way.

The acquisition will also help DeHaat gain access to new regions and farmer networks in western UP and a dedicated team which has been working on the ground for 2.5 years in the agritech industry. VezaMart has collaborated with over 10,000 farmers in western districts of UP such as Hapur, Aligarh, and Kasanganj.

With plans of expansion, DeHaat now plans to set up five regional warehouses in western UP which will cater to the needs of over 50,000 farmers in the current financial year, and held them with agri services, ranging from providing seeds to selling their produce in the market.

At present, DeHaat provides three primary services to the farmers — agricultural input, crop advice, and links to the market for selling the produce. Farmers can place orders for seeds, fertilisers and other needs through DeHaat’s helpline or a physical centre. There is also a mobile app for the same. From here, the orders are forwarded to people on the ground — also called DeHaat’s micro entrepreneurs — who complete the delivery on the same day. Each micro entrepreneur works with 600-800 farmers within a 3-5 km radius.

DeHaat claims to have banked a revenue of INR 45 Cr so far — its last fiscal revenue being INR 21 Cr. In March, the company raised an equity funding of $4 Mn led by Omnivore and AgFunder. Earlier this month it raised Rs 20 crore debt capital led by Omnivore and AgFunder.

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