BharatAgri raises ₹35 crore in Series A funding led by Arkam Ventures

• BharatAgri is a startup that serves farmers in India with customised crop advisory calendars and is also an ecommerce platform.
• Other than Arkam, the latest capital raise round also saw participation from Capria Ventures and existing investors India Quotient, 021 Capital and Omnivore.
• The company has built prediction algorithms that provide advisory customised to crops, region and climatic changes.
  

In every market cycle, select sectors attract more capital as they tend to promise higher growth in the future. After the mega funding boom that platform and online commerce saw, agritech and manufacturing are new boom sectors for private investors now. BharatAgri, an advisory led ecommerce platform for farmers, on Thursday announced that it had raised Series A funding of ₹35 crore ($4.3mn) led by Arkam Ventures, India’s first early-stage venture fund dedicated to Middle-India startups.

Agritech startups are playing a key role in leading the charge when it comes to innovation in the farm sector as they are riddled with inefficiencies. BharatAgri is a leading agri-tech company in India. It is solving the problem of low production and low income from Indian farms. Lack of scientific knowledge and access to affordable crop-inputs at the farm level is the core reason for this problem.

BharatAgri is an advisory driven crop-input e-commerce platform for farmers. Farmers get personalised scientific crop calendars for their respective farms that give them real time guidance about how to grow the crop.

The company has built prediction algorithms that provide advisory customised to crops, region and climatic changes. Farmers can access this custom advisory that would help them increase farm yield, lower input costs and labour effort. Its ecommerce platform offers 10000+ agricultural products such as fertilisers, seeds, pesticides, insecticides, farming equipment, among others and is delivered pan-India across 20,000 + pin codes. The seamless integration of advisory and ecommerce will enable BharatAgri to increase farmers’ production by 30%, reduce cost by 10% and improve their earning by 100%.

Commenting on the fund raise, Siddharth Dialani, Cofounder, BharatAgri said, “In the next 3 years, 50 million+ farmers will use the internet for the first time and we want BharatAgri to be their bridge to the digital era of agri that is now dawning. With 10L+ unique monthly users, 10k+ SKUs, 100+ marketplace partners and 20k+ serviceable pin codes, BharatAgri is making a significant impact on farmers' lives. With this investment, BharatAgri aims to further strengthen its rural supply chain, expand the user base and become the largest and the de facto e-commerce platform for farmers.”

The latest round of funding marks Arkam’s third investment in the agri-tech space, furthering its commitment to support builders of Bharat. The round also saw participation from Capria Ventures and existing investors, India Quotient, 021 Capital, and Omnivore. The funds will be used to scale BharatAgri’s ecommerce platform into new geographies and strengthen its last-mile delivery. Rahul Chandra, MD, Arkam Ventures will join the board of the agritech startup.

Arkam Ventures is also an investor in Jai Kisan, one of India’s fastest growing rural fintech platforms for farmers and retailers, and Jumbotail, India’s leading B2B food & grocery marketplace and retail platform. Digitisation of the fragmented Indian agri industry is one of the key themes under Arkam’s Middle-India thesis. The fund has been consistently backing early-movers and market winners that are empowering farmers and strengthening the agri-value chain with technology.

Talking about the latest investment in BharatAgri, Rahul Chandra, MD, Arkam Ventures said, “Agri inputs is a $44B market in India and suffers from stock outs, misinformation and non-scientific usage behaviour. The quintessential Indian farmer is now seeking digital information and is concerned with farm yields, crop as well as personal safety and household wealth. BharatAgri is a fantastic combination of custom advice and ready assortment of products - reducing confusion around usage of chemical products and giving fastest access to the best quality agri brands.”

About BharatAgri

Headquartered in Bangalore, BharatAgri is a leading agri-tech company in India. It is solving the problem of low production and low income from Indian farms. Lack of scientific knowledge and access to affordable crop-inputs at the farm level is the core reason for this problem.

BharatAgri is an advisory driven crop-input e-commerce platform for farmers. Farmers get personalised scientific crop calendars for their farm, which gives them real time guidance about how to grow the crop. The guidance includes selection of right seeds, fertilisers and pesticides which farmers can buy from the platform. It currently serves more than 20k pincodes and is expanding rapidly to other remote parts of the country.

BharatAgri is backed by Arkam Ventures, India Quotient, 021 Capital, Capria Ventures and Omnivore.

About Arkam Ventures

Started in 2020 by two seasoned venture capitalists, Rahul Chandra (formerly - Co-founder & MD, Helion Venture Partners) and Bala Srinivasa (formerly partner at Kalaari Capital), Arkam is a pioneer in investing in the massive Middle India opportunity. Unlike its predecessors and peers who have largely backed start-ups serving the top of the pyramid, Arkam backs a new generation of founders focused on building tech-led solutions for the next 400 million Indians.

From its USD 106 million Fund 1, Arkam has invested in Middle India opportunities across financial services, skilling, food, agriculture, mobility, healthcare and SaaS. Its portfolio currently consists of 16 new-age companies, including fintech firms such as Jar , and Kreditbee, Food/Agritech companies like Jai-Kisan and Jumbotail, Skilling companies like Smartstaff and Cusmat as well as SaaS companies like Spotdraft and Signzy.

The fund recently launched its second fund with a target size of USD 180 Mn. It will continue to focus on existing sectors such as financial services, skilling, food, agriculture, healthcare, mobility, and SaaS as well as identify category leaders in promising areas like Manufacturing Tech and EVs.