Exclusive: Waycool kicks off a new round at a valuation of $335 Mn

Agritech startup Waycool has kicked off a new round as the company has raised Rs 96 crore or close to $13 million as a part of its Series D round. This is the second fundraise for the Chennai-based company this year. 

In April, it had scooped $20 million from existing investors such as Lightstone, Lightbox Ventures and Netherland-based FMO Development Bank. The company has passed a special resolution to allot 28,794 Series D preference shares at an issue price of Rs 33,174.62 to raise Rs 96 crore from LGT Group (formerly Aspada).

According to Entrackr’s sources, the company is in late-stage talks to mop up over $50 million in the Series D round from new and existing investors. “Its valuation is likely to cross $400-450 million in this round,” said one of the sources requesting anonymity.

Fintrackr’s estimates show that the company has been valued at around Rs 2,510 crore or $335 million (post-money) in the latest infusion by LGT Group. Waycool was valued at close to Rs 1,450 crore or $200 million when it raised its Series C financing round earlier this year.

Queries sent to Waycool regarding the size of the new round remain unanswered until the publication of this story. We will update the story as and when they respond.

Apart from the fundraise, the agritech company has also passed a resolution to increase the size of its existing ESOP pool by 40,000 shares. The new stock option pool is now valued at around Rs 270 crore and the board of directors have recommended a grant of loan by the company to Waycool ESOP Trust for the acquisition of these shares. 

Founded in 2015 by Karthik Jayaraman and Sanjay Dasari, WayCool connects farmers and food producers with restaurants, hotels, among others. The company has a network of 50,000 farmers and it handles 350 tonnes of food products everyday for more than 18,000 clients, as per its website. 

While Waycool is yet to file financial statements for FY21, its operating revenue had crossed Rs 241 crore in the first three-quarters of FY21 and is projected to reach Rs 393 crore for the whole fiscal. It competes with NinjaCart and Udaan, Zomato’s HyprePure, Vegrow among several others.