American dairytech company acquire Mr. Milkman to enter the Indian dairytech market
Mr. Milkman is a dairy supply chain SaaS platform that helps dairy companies manage aspects of production
The Indian dairy industry is worth INR 11,357 Bn
US-based Dairy tech company Dairy.com has acquired a 100% stake in Gurugram-based Mr.Milkman — a dairy supply chain SaaS startup.
Mr.Milkman serves over 60 Indian dairy brands and helps them manage aspects of dairy distribution, supply chain, customer subscription, and delivery requests through an integrated platform.
Dairy.com is an information technology services and intelligence provider that works with dairy industry partners. Their services include quality management software, manufacturing execution systems, dairy firm analytics etc.
With the pooled resources of both organisations, the combined entity (in India) will be looking for opportunities to digitise several areas of the agricultural supply chain in the country.
India is the largest producer of milk in the world and it is the largest single agricultural commodity with a 4% share in the economy. The industry has grown at a rate of 12% annually for the past five years.
Operation Flood, an initiative launched in 1970, changed India from a milk-deficient country to the world’s largest milk producer. This process that included tax incentives, government support for farmers and subsidies later came to be called the white revolution.
Against this backdrop, many large private and public cooperative dairy companies emerged. The country’’s dairy industry is the most organised among other sections of the agricultural sector, with close to 35% of the industry being handled by organised players such as Amul, Mother Dairy and others.
“Milk brands in India and around the world operate on slim margins, and since milk prices have a cap, the only way to grow profits is to become more efficient – which can only happen through the implementation of technology,” said Samarth Setia, Mr.Milkman Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder.
In February 2019, the Indian government announced Kamdhenu Aayog with an initial corpus of 500 Cr, and announced that startups focused on commercialised cow products will receive 60% of their initial investment as government funding.
Over the last few years, dairy tech startups have been ushering in a “White Revolution 2.0”, trying to revolutionise the way in which traditional farms source, store, supply and distribute dairy.
Just a few weeks ago, dairytech startup Stellaps raised INR 67 Cr from Qualcomm and others.
In November last year, dairytech startup Country Delight raised $25 Mn in a Series C round led by Elevation Capital.
Another dairytech startup Doodhwala shut down their operations under unclear circumstances and redirected their business to FreshToHome, an Indian grocery-delivery startup.
