Dairytech Startup Stellapps Raises $18 Mn Series C Funding To Digitise Indian Dairy Sector

Bengaluru-based dairytech startup Stellapps has raised a total of $18 Mn in a Series C funding round led by Nutreco, an animal nutrition and aquaculture company. 

Qualcomm Ventures, Celesta Capital, and ABB Technology Ventures also participated in the round.

Stellapps is a dairy digitisation service provider that helps clients in the dairy industry improve productivity and quality as well as provide traceability across the supply chain. The startup plans on using the funds to scale its traceability network and extend its digital footprint. 

“Our vision is to unlock unprecedented value across the dairy supply chain for all stakeholders, especially smallholder farmers,” said Ranjith Mukundan, CEO of Stellapps. “We are on a mission to shift the Indian smallholder farmers into the agripreneur orbit by enhancing productivity, improving quality, and enabling traceability through our smartMoo solutions.” 

Dutch multinational corporation Nutreco is an animal nutrition and aquafeed company that employs over 12,000 people across the 37 countries it does business in. 

India is the largest producer of milk in the world and it is the largest single agricultural commodity with a 4% share in the economy. The industry has grown at a rate of 12% annually for the past five years. 

But according to industry estimates, close to 48 percent of the milk produced is either produced at the producer level (in farming households) or sold directly to consumers in rural areas. 

Further, only 1,080 lakh kg of the 3,210 lakh kg of milk produced per day in the country comes from the organised sector (34%), as opposed to 2,130 lakh kg from the unorganised sector which makes up 66%. In the organised sector, cooperative and private players have an almost equal share of the market. 

Earlier this month, US-based Dairy.com had entered the Indian market with the acquisition of Mr. Milkman; a Gurugram-based SaaS startup that is also involved with dairy production and the dairy supply chain. 

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