Agritech startup Arya raises $21 Mn in Series B round

Agritech startup Arya has raised $21 million in a mix of equity and debt in its Series B round. Quona Capital led the equity round in participation with existing investors LGT Lightstone Aspada and Omnivore. Multiple lenders also participated in providing additional debt financing to the company. 

As part of the investment, Varun Malhotra, Principal at Quona Capital, will join the board of Arya. 

The Noida-headquartered startup had earlier raised $6 million in its pre-Series B funding round in March. The fresh funding will be used to expand financing to farmers through Arya’s fintech arm Aryadhan and to strengthen its post-harvest services and market linkages platform 

“Of the food grains worth USD 130 billion produced by India annually, there are huge losses in primary and secondary markets due to lack of storage, forcing farmers to sell off-cycle for lower returns,” said Arya’s co-founder and CEO Prasanna Rao in a press statement.

“These same farmers are dependent on financing for their cash flow needs but are vastly underserved, hurting their ability to store and sell their produce optimally. Arya’s digital solution pairs warehousing with financing and critical market linkage services to help smallholder farmers thrive,” he added. 

Launched by Rao, Chattanathan Devarajan and Anand Chandra, Arya offers storage, warehouse management, embedded finance, and market linkages to agricultural producers and buyers across India. Arya’s clients include farmers, farmer producer organisations (FPOs), financial institutions, SME agri processors, commodity traders and corporate agribusinesses. 

The startup claims to have over 2.5 million tonnes of storage capacity across 1,500 warehouses in 20 Indian states. It efficiently connects the supply side of the agro-ecosystem with the demand side. Arya’s NBFC subsidiary, Aryadhan Financial Solutions, assists sellers of agri-commodities to avoid distress sale of produce by extending post-harvest credit. On the financing side, it has completed loan disbursements of over Rs 250 crore. 

Arya will join the likes of Clover, Arya, DeHaat, Kamatan Farm, Bijak, Ninjacart , WayCool and over 20 other agriculture-focused startups which have raised funds in 2020.