Aqgromalin Raises $5.25 Mn To Solve Animal Protein Supply Chain Issues

Animal husbandry and aquaculture agritech startup Aqgromalin has raised $5.25 Mn in a Pre Series A funding round with participation from Sequoia India’s Surge, Omnivore Partners India and Zephyr Peacock India. 

Founded in 2020 by Bharani CL and Prasanna Manogaran, Aqgromalin is building a full-stack agritech platform to help farmers diversify into animal husbandry and aquaculture. It claims to provide a data-backed traceable supply chain to farmers, butchers, meat companies and exporters for their poultry, seafood and livestock needs.

The startup plans to deploy the funds towards strengthening its market expansion, farmer base, technology and product development. Aqgromalin is also part of Sequoia Capital India’s Surge’s 6th cohort, which kicked off today. 

According to the Chennai-based startups, it has recorded a 10x growth in revenue over the last six months and has onboarded a total of over 300,000 farmers and entrepreneurs on its platform. 

“Animal Husbandry and Aquaculture are highly fragmented and underserved sectors in the Indian agricultural landscape. As part of the fund acquisition, we look forward to expanding our operations and helping farmers overcome the challenges of limited availability of quality live inputs and lack of access to markets,” said Bharani CL, cofounder of Aqgromalin.

The Indian market for animal husbandry was valued at INR 93,000 Cr in 2020 and it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.6% during 2021 and 2026 to reach INR 1,28,017 Cr by the end of the forecast period. 

This figure includes the breeding and raising of livestock and the revenues received from the sale of broiler meat, eggs, buffalo meat, sheep/goat meat, pig meat, wool, animal skin etc. On the other hand, the aquaculture industry is the business of farming aquatic organisms in both inland waters and marine areas.

The Indian aquaculture industry had revenues totalling $15.4 Bn in 2020, representing a growth at a CAGR of 10% between 2016 and then. Industry production volumes increased with a CAGR of 8.1% during the same period to reach a total of 7,788.7 thousand tonnes in 2020. 

Earlier this month, fresh produce distribution startup WayCool had raised $117 Mn in a Series D funding round, beating DeHaat’s $115 Mn Series D round to become India’s biggest agritech funding round so far.