Walmart, Flipkart Infuse Second Tranche Of Ninjacart Strategic Investment

Ecommerce major Flipkart and its US-based parent Walmart have jointly invested an undisclosed amount, their second, in fresh produce supply chain startup Ninjacart.

This comes after Ninjacart had raised INR 71.83 Cr in Series C funding round led by Flipkart India and Singapore-based GEC3 in January. In December 2019, Walmart and Flipkart had announced a joint strategic investment in Ninjacart.

Ninjacart plans to use the capital to expand to new markets and build new offerings and supply chains for emerging customer segments.

The transaction is expected to close by the end October 2020, Flipkart said in a press note.

“We will continue to make investments to offer the best produce to our customers and support livelihoods and sustainable growth for local farmers, producers and the supply chain ecosystem. Our pilots and current business engagement with Ninjacart have been encouraging as we leverage technology to address changing consumer behaviour across the country,” said Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO, Flipkart Group.

Ninjacart was founded in May 2015 by Thirukumaran Nagarajan, Sharath Loganathan, Sachin Jose, Kartheeswaran KK and Vasudevan Chinnathambi. It is an agritech startup that sources groceries, fruits and vegetables directly from farmers and then, supplies these to supermarkets and kirana stores. Ninjacart is backed by investors such as Tiger Global, Accel, Tanglin, Steadview, Syngenta, Nandan Nilekani and Qualcomm among others. 

Ninjacart has also moved into the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) segment by procuring from big brands and selling to store owners and other resellers. Ninjacart claims to move over 1,400 tons of fresh produce per day.

It claims to source fruits and vegetables from farmers across more than 20 Indian states and delivers to over 17K local kirana stores and restaurants in seven Indian cities daily — Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Delhi NCR and Pune.

In November 2019, Ninjacart also raised INR 30 Cr debt funding from Trifecta Capital. According to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs Fillings, accessed by Inc42, Ninjacart has allotted 150 debentures to Trifecta Capital for INR 15 Cr as part of Series C and the same for Series D as well, raising the debentures to 300 for INR 30 Cr.