Omnivore, Sequoia’s Surge And Others Invest $2.5 Mn In Agritech Startup Bijak

Gurugram-based B2B agritech platform Bijak has raised approximately $2.5 Mn in a seed round from investment firms Omnivore and Omidyar Network India, and Sequoia Capital India’s accelerator programme Surge. This will be Sequoia Surge’s and Omidyar Network’s first investment in an agritech startup.  

Founded in 2019 by Nukul Upadhye, Mahesh Jakhotia, Jitender Bedwal, Daya Rai and Nikhil Tripathi, Bijak allows traders, wholesalers and food processors to keep a track of transactions, access pricing, and logistics, and improve working capital cycles.

With this business model, Bijak is looking to tackle the lack of accountability in the trade of agricultural commodities and set up a platform that will bring in a well-informed mechanism in the B2B marketplace.

Bijak’s CoFounder, Nukul Upadhye, said, “Focused on addressing challenges such as accountability and trust in the B2B agri commodity trade, we are targeting a $200B market in India which has almost 5M+ middlemen.”

To make sure that the platform benefits the right audience, Bijak is available in various local languages in Tier 2 and Tier 3 regions of multiple agricultural states — Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Bihar, and Uttarakhand.

Omnivore’s managing partner, Mark Kahn said, “Bijak is transforming the agricultural trading ecosystem across India by partnering with buyers, sellers, and middlemen to improve transparency and reduce everyone’s cost of capital. Over time, this will also become hugely beneficial to Indian farmers.”

According to Inc42 DataLabs, Indian agritech startups raised $66.6 Mn (INR 463 Cr) in 2018, whereas the total funding in the agritech space was $46.1 Mn (INR 320 Cr) in 2017. Some of the companies in the agritech sector include Ninjacart, Vegfru, Lemon Leaf, DayBox, Crofarm, WayCool CropIn, Fasal and Kamatan Farm tech.

Recently, New Delhi-based Kamatan Farm Tech raised $4 Mn (INR 30 Cr) equity and debt funding round to improve its logistics and supply chain. In November, FMO Entrepreneurial Development Bank also announced it’s planning to invest $5.2 Mn (INR 37.31 Cr) in Chennai-based WayCool Foods And Products for Infrastructure development.

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