Peak XV Backed DeHaat Launches Agrifood Consumer Brand

Agritech startup DeHaat, which counts Peak XV Partners and Sofina Ventures among its investors, has become the latest business-to-business supply chain and market linkage services provider to roll out its own consumer brand.

This comes months after the startup acquired the fruit export business of Ahmedabad-based listed fruit export firm Freshtrop Fruits in an all-cash deal in November last year.

DeHaat has launched its products in modern trade, quick commerce and ecommerce platforms under the brand name Honest Farms, which includes 200 stock keeping units (SKU) in categories of pulses, rice and spices.

“Honest Farms is currently in a stealth mode… we are not going very bullish in terms of TV commercials and a lot of marketing spend, because at this point of time, the brand is very new. We are fully focused on having the first 100,000 consumers just because of the product, not because of any marketing,” DeHaat’s founder and CEO Shashank Kumar told ET.

Email queries sent to DeHaat did not elicit any response till the time of filing this article. 

Founded in 2012 by Kumar, Amrendra Singh, Shyam Sundar and Adarsh Srivastav, Patna and Gurugram-based DeHaat offers end-to-end agricultural services to farmers. Its services include the distribution of high-quality agri-inputs, customised farm advisory, access to financial services and market linkages for selling their produce.

Since its inception, the startup claims to have served over 2 Mn farmers across 11 states in India through its digital network of over 11,000 ‘DeHaat Centers’.

The startup boasts a network of over 1,500 stock-keeping units, delivering over 15,000 orders per day to more than 15 countries. 

DeHaat reported an over 253% YoY rise in its FY22 loss to INR 1,563.9 Cr. In 2022, the startup secured $60 Mn in a Series E funding round, which took the total amount raised in the round to $106 Mn.