Exclusive: Ninjacart’s valuation crosses $500 Mn with new infusion

Fresh produce supply chain startup Ninjacart has raised $9.5 million in a new round from its existing investor Syngenta Ventures. 

Regulatory filings show that Ninjacart has approved the allotment of 1,746 preference shares at an issue price of Rs 400,848 to Syngenta to raise Rs 70 crore. It appears that the tranche is ongoing and the company may raise more funds.

Ninjacart had last raised $10 million led by Flipkart India and Singapore-based GEC3 in January last year.

According to Fintrackr’s estimates, Nijacart has reached the post-money valuation of Rs 3,715 crore or $502 million in this tranche. The company was valued at around $320 million during a $90 million Series C round led by Tiger Global in April 2019. At that time, the New York-based hedge fund had acquired a 26.5% stake in Ninjacart.

Led by Thirukumaran Nagarajan, Ninjacart enables retailers and restaurants to source fresh produce directly from farmers at competitive prices and also delivers it to businesses, including mandis.

The five-year-old startup has a network of more than 200 collection centres and 1,200 warehouses in India. It claims to move over 1,400 tons of fresh produce daily and supplies to stores across seven cities – Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi, Gurugram, Mumbai and Pune.

Fintrackr has also decoded Ninjacart's current shareholding structure in which Tiger Global now holds 22.9% stake followed by early backer Accel Partners which has 17.7%. After the fresh infusion, Syngenta holds 5.2%. 

Syngenta along with Accel and others had led a $35 million Series B round in the Bengaluru-based company in December 2018.

Nandan Nilekani & Family and Flipkart have 5.6% and 4.3% stake respectively. Among the founders, Nagarajan has the largest stake of 5.2% in the company whereas Kartheeswaran K K, Ashutosh Vikram, Sharath Loganathan and Vasudevan Chinnathambi have 2.2% stake each.

Ninjacart directly competes with Waycool and Vegrow which is in late-stage talks to raise a $12 million in Series A from new and existing investors. Entrackr had exclusively reported the development on May 18. 

Ninjacart has been helping Flipkart and it powers the latter’s fresh farm vertical - Flipkart Quick. Last month, Flipkart had expanded its hyperlocal delivery service to six new cities like Delhi, Gurugram, Ghaziabad, Noida, Hyderabad and Pune to deliver daily essentials.