DeHaat Secures $2.84 Mn Venture Debt From Trifecta Capital

Omnivore-backed agritech startup DeHaat has secured $2.84 Mn (INR 20 Cr) from venture debt firm Trifecta Capital. This debt would be drawn over the next 12 months.

DeHaat plans to use the funds for piloting of financial services, such as credit and insurance, for existing farmers on DeHaat’s platform. Prior to this round, DeHaat has raised nearly $5 Mn from Omnivore, IIM Calcutta Innovation Centre and angel investors.

Founded in 2012 by Shashank Kumar, DeHaat offers end-to-end agricultural services to farmers, including distribution of high-quality agri inputs, customised farm advisory, access to financial services, and market linkages for selling their produce.

DeHaat Onboards 50K New Farmers

DeHaat enables advisory from a panel of esteemed scientists and advisors and farmers to market their products to ITC, Godrej, Reliance, Metro, etc. of value more than INR 3.5 Cr/month in Bihar, UP and Odisha.

At present, it is catering to about 56K farmers largely in north and eastern India. In the last three months, DeHaat has on-boarded 50K new farmers across Bihar and UP to reach a milestone of 100K farmers on the platform.

Shashank Kumar, cofounder and CEO, DeHaat, said, “Our larger goal is to become a one-stop destination for Indian farmers, which can meet all of their agricultural needs. Trifecta Capital has experience investing in agritech startups and likewise brings deep relationships with financial institutions and agribusiness corporates that DeHaat can leverage to accelerate our growth.”

It also planned to set up 14 regional warehouses to store inventory and in the next year, it plans to expand to Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.

Rahul Khanna, cofounder and managing partner, Trifecta Capital, said, “DeHaat is one of the most capital efficient startups we have ever come across. They have a strong hold on unit economics and an amazing proposition for farmers as well as other value chain players.”

Agritech Sector In India

Startups working in this space may help the central government achieve its goal to double the income of the farmers by 2022. In the space, DeHaat competes with the likes of Intello Labs, FreshoKartz, Ninjacart, Skymet, Stellapps, Eruvaka, MITRA, Y-Cook, Ecozen, FR8, and GramCover.

One of the major investors in DeHaat, Omnivore’s partner Mark Kahn earlier told Inc42 seconds the growth of the sector. He shared that as the sector was not mainstream earlier, the transformation has come in the last 24 months, with large VCs as well as strategic investors showing interest.

With more than 58% of the rural population relying on agriculture for sustenance, India currently ranks second globally in terms of farm output. The agritech market is big enough for startups in both the organised and unorganised segments to sustain and build scalable models.