Tiger Global has made a soft comeback in India last year. However, it turned aggressive this year with back to back deals in Clevertap and Ninjacart. Unlike its bold bets on Consumer Internet companies like Flipkart in the first phase, the hedge fund has been bullish on B2B models.
Two weeks after participating in $25 million investment in Clevertap, Tiger Global has put in about $90 million Series C round in farm to business -agritech – firm NinjaCart. This is the largest solo bet of the New York-based firm in an Indian startup ever.
The Series C round for the Bengaluru-based startup has come within four months of raising the previous round worth $35 million from Accel and Syngenta Ventures.
According to an ET report backed by paper.vc, Tiger Global has acquired around 26.5% stake in NinjaCart. Now, the firm has been valued over $320 million. It’s a staggering 4X spike in its valuation in the span of just four months.
The company essentially helps supermarkets, kirana stores, and standalone shops to procure fresh fruits and vegetables directly from farmers.
Currently, NinjaCart claims to deliver 500 tonnes of vegetables and fruits daily with close to 100% accuracy. It has 7,000 farmers on its platform across seven cities including Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi, and Mumbai.
Choice of Tiger Global in writing its biggest cheque ever to NinjaCart also is a good sign for several startups who are trying to organise the traditional and underdeveloped supply chain in agricultural space. Tech enabled startups minimise wastage significantly (less than 5% as compared to 50% industry average) and increase on the efficiency.
Existing supply chains are a big headache as produce spends too much time in transit, with multiple loading/unloading causing wastage, and with several intermediaries involved a substantial amount of money ends up going to entities that don’t add much value.
Likes of NinjaCart and its rivals Crofarm, WayCool and a handful of others have been weeding out these inefficiencies.
Given the aggressive instance of Tiger Global unusually in B2B startups (core tech as well as supply chain), it won’t be surprising if it places more bets in local startups in the near future.
