SUMMARY
Tanglin Venture Fund and Steadview Capital also invested in this round
Bengaluru-based Ninjacart directly connects farmers and businesses
The company will use this funding to expand its supply chain and warehousing capacity
Bengaluru-based agritech platform Ninjacart has added another $10 Mn to close its ongoing Series C round from a clutch of investors, including company’s existing investors Tiger Global, debt venture fund Trifecta Capital, along with Tanglin Venture Fund, Steadview Capital, and ABG Capital.
According to the latest Ministry of Corporate Affairs filings accessed by Inc42, both Tiger Global and Tanglin Venture Fund have invested about $2.9 Mn each in the agritech startup. Against this recent investment, both investors will acquire 685 equity shares each in the company, while Steadview Capital contributed $2.4Mn to acquire 572 equity shares in Ninjacart. ABG Capital also invested $441.7K to acquire 101 shares in the agritech company.
Earlier this month, the company had also completed a $2.8 Mn debt capital round from another existing investor Trifecta Capital, which is also a part of this Series C round. Prior to this in April, the company had received $89 Mn Series C funding from Tiger Global.
The company will use this investment to expand its supply chain and warehousing capacity. “At present, we run 500 small trucks and 150 big trucks — now we need to grow our capacity by 10-20 times to include 5000 small trucks and 1000 big trucks,” Ninjacart cofounder Thirukumaran Nagarajan told Inc42.
“Currently, we are in seven Indian cities including Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi NCR, Pune, Ahmedabad, and Mumbai. With these new fundings, we want to expand our reach in three more cities from northern and western parts of India,” he added.
Ninjacart was founded by Nagarajan, Kartheeswaran K K, Ashutosh Vikram, Sharath Loganathan and Vasudevan Chinnathambi in 2015. The company picks up the produce directly from the farmer’s fields and delivers it to the businesses. The company claims to have perfected its sourcing and operations for achieving scale and lowering costs.
The company claims to source fruits and vegetables from farmers across more than 20 Indian states and deliver to over 17K local kiranas and restaurants in seven Indian cities daily.
Till now, Ninjacart has raised a total funding of around $54.72 Mn. Other existing investors in the company include Accel Partners, Qualcomm Ventures, and Milestone. Earlier this month, the company was also reported to be raising funds from global ecommerce platform Amazon.
Agritech Sector In India
According to Inc42 DataLabs, the total funding in agritech startups in India has grown from $46.1 Mn (INR 320 Cr) 2017 to $66.6 Mn (INR 463 Cr) in 2018, which is indicative of the growing investor interest in this sector.
Some of the notable players in this space are FreshoKartz, Farmtaaza, Waycool, Crofarm, FarmLink, Krishihub, Sabziwala.
Most recently, Jaipur-based Freshokartz raised an undisclosed amount in its seed funding round from Chennai-based investor Sunil Kumar Singhvi along with a group of angel investors and high net worth individuals on convertible note terms.
In January, Chennai-based agritech startup WayCool Foods raised $16.9 Mn (INR 120 Cr) as a combination of equity and debt from LGT Impact, prominent angels, and institutional lenders including Northern Arc Capital and Caspian.
Ninjacart was part of the 2018 edition of the most coveted list of India’s most innovative startups — 42Next by Inc42.
