Sequoia leads $12 Mn round in Patna-based agri marketplace DeHaat

DeHaat, an online marketplace for farm services and products, has secured $12 million in a Series A funding round led by Sequoia Capital India along with co-investment from Dutch entrepreneurial development bank FMO. Existing investors Omnivore and AgFunder also participated in the round.

The latest investment round for DeHaat comes after a gap of one year. Previously, the company had raised Rs 30 crore in a pre-Series A round led by Omnivore Ventures in March 2019.

In its 8 years of operations, the Patna-based startup has managed to raise $16 million in equity and $3 million in venture debt. 

With this infusion, DeHaat is likely to extend its network to 2,000 rural retail centres, on-board more micro-entrepreneurs for last-mile delivery and reach 1 million farmers by June next year.

Besides, the startup is also working towards automating its supply chain and developing more sophisticated data analytics, said a Mint report. 

Founded by Shashank Kumar, DeHaat provides end-to-end services like high-quality segment-specific inputs, customised advising, financial services and market linkages to farmers for the sale of their produce.

The startup, which employs 242 people, helps farmers connect with 200 institutional partners to provide them with working capital and at the end of the season, helps them sell their yields to bulk buyers such as Reliance Fresh, Zomato and Udaan among others. 

At present, DeHaat is operational in eastern India - Bihar, UP and Odisha - with over 1,68,000 farmers in their service network, 280 DeHaat centers, and 250 corporate buyers. 

Recently, other agritech startups including Arya and Clover raised $6 million and $5.5 million respectively.