Exclusive: DeHaat May Become India’s First Agritech Unicorn, In Talks To Raise $100 Mn

Bihar-based agritech startup DeHaat is in talks with several investors, including a global private equity firm, to raise nearly $100 Mn in Series E round at a pre-money valuation of nearly $900 Mn, multiple sources aware of the development told Inc42. 

The funding round can take DeHaat’s post-money valuation to over $1 Bn, making it the first agritech startup in the country to turn unicorn. 

“Around 30 % of the ongoing round is already subscribed and the Series E is getting good traction from investors,” one of the sources said.

The fundraise will help the Sequoia-backed startup leapfrog Flipkart-backed agritech startup Ninjacart in terms of valuation. Ninjacart was last valued at $812 Mn.

A detailed questionnaire sent to DeHaat cofounder and CEO Shashank Kumar regarding the startup’s Series E fundraise remained unanswered till publishing this story.

DeHaat was last valued at $500-$550 Mn after its Series D fundraise in October last year. The agritech startup had bagged $115 Mn in the funding round led by Belgium-based investment firm Sofina and Lightrock India. The funding round, which also saw participation from Singapore-based Temasek holdings, Prosus Ventures, Sequoia Capital India and FMO, was the largest round by an agritech startup then.

Notably, the Patna-headquartered DeHaat reportedly laid off 100 employees last month. However, Kumar countered media reports by saying that the number of laid-off employees was not in three digits, and it was a corrective measure. In an interaction with Moneycontrol, the DeHaat CEO said that the startup also hired more than 1,000 people over the previous 14-15 months.

As per the professional networking site Linkedln, DeHaat currently has 1,116 employees.

The startup’s revenue from operations jumped 186% to INR 358.2 Cr in the financial year 2020-21 (FY21) from INR 125.1 Cr in FY20, while its loss widened 3X to INR 54.1 Cr from INR 18.1 Cr in the previous year. Its expenses nearly tripled to INR 415.1 Cr in FY21 from INR 143.4 Cr in FY20.

DeHaat, founded in 2012 by Amrendra Singh, Shyam Sundar, Adarsh Srivastav and Kumar, 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.

The startup has created a rural retail network of more than 3,000 DeHaat microentrepreneurs for last-mile delivery. It claims to serve more than 650K farmers across Bihar, UP, Jharkhand and Odisha.

DeHaat has also made four acquisitions so far. In April this year, it acquired a 75% stake in Bengaluru-based processed food startup YCook. Earlier, it acquired agri-input marketplace Helicrofter. DeHaat had claimed that Helicrofter’s acquisition would help it expand operations in Maharashtra and other states in western India. 

In 2019, DeHaat acquired B2B SaaS platform FarmGuide to create a full-stack platform for farmers and agri-businesses in India. In the same year, it also acquired Veezamart, a platform which builds farm management solutions for farmers, to expand the reach of farmers using its platform. 

According to an Inc42 report, India’s agritech market is expected to grow to $24.1 Bn by 2025. Waycool, Agrostar and Arya.org are among the other highly-valued agritech startups in the country.

Waycool was last valued at $700Mn, whereas AgroStar’s valuation last reported was $235 Mn. Arya.org’s valuation crossed  $300 Mn after its last Series C round, in which it received $60 Mn funding.