KisanKonnect Nets INR 72 Cr To Sell Fresh Fruits & Vegetables

SUMMARY

The round was led by Bajaj Finserv Group, with participation from Mistry Ventures as well as Desai Foods, Dhanuka Agritech and Action Tessa family office

The startup plans to utilise the fresh funds to bolster its tech stack and supply chain, scale both online and offline presence, and deepen its farmer network

KisanKonnect claims to sell fresh fruits and vegetables via its app and website in under 60-minutes across Mumbai and Pune. It also operates offline stores

Omnichannel farm-to-fork startup Kisankonnect has raised INR 72 Cr ($8 Mn) in its Pre-Series A funding round led by Bajaj Finserv Group.

The round also saw participation from existing backer Mistry Ventures as well as Desai Foods, Dhanuka Agritech and Action Tessa family office.

In a statement, KisanKonnect cofounder Vivek Nirmal said that the startup plans to utilise the fresh funds to bolster its tech stack and supply chain, scale both online and offline presence, and deepen its farmer network.

Founded in 2020 by Nirmal and Nidhi Nirmal, KisanKonnect claims to sell fresh fruits and vegetables via its app and website in under 60-minutes across Mumbai and Pune. It also operates stores that sell fresh produce offline.

It claims to source perishables directly from its network of 5,000 farmers through its village-level collection centres. KisanKonnect claims to leverage AI, Internet of Things (IoT) and radio frequency identification (RFID) tools to streamline traceability and demand forecasting for its 650+ SKUs.

That said, this is the farm-to-fork startup’s second fundraise this year. In January this year, the company bagged $4.5 Mn in its Series A round led by Mistry Ventures. It also raised $3.7 Mn in its Pre-Series A round in 2024 from Green Frontier Capital, Dhanuka Agritech and others.

KisanKonnect operates in the broader Indian fruits and vegetables market, which is reportedly worth over INR 7.5 Lakh Cr. However, the space is marred by challenges such as wastage, lack of organised players and shaky supply chain management.

However, a new band of players like Fresh From Farm, Handpickd, MyMandi and KisanKonnect itself are working to solve this problem by leveraging tech to solve procurement, grading, sorting, and delivery. Not just this, the rise of quick commerce has also seen giants like Blinkit, Swiggy Instamart and Zepto deliver fresh fruits and vegetables directly to customers within 10 minutes.

As a result, the space continues to see healthy interest from venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) firms. Earlier in the day, rival fresh commerce startup Handpickd (erstwhile Sorted) bagged $15 Mn in its Series A funding round led by Bertelsmann India Investments.

In March, D2C fruits and vegetables delivery startup Pluckk also bagged $10 Mn in its Series A round from Euro Gulf Investment.