Flipkart and Walmart invest $145 Mn in Ninjacart

Flipkart and Walmart have announced a fresh round of joint strategic investment worth $145 million in fresh produce supply chain startup Ninjacart. This is the third time Flipkart has invested in the Bengaluru-based company.

While Ninjacart did not disclose any further details of the transaction including valuation, the company was valued at over $500 million during its latest transaction in May this year, as per Fintrackr’s estimates.

The investment will further empower millions of agri-value chain participants, including farmers, resellers, retailers, consumers, and supply chain participants, the company said in a press release. 

Additionally, Flipkart will also strengthen its grocery footprint and offerings.

Currently, Flipkart offers groceries in 1800 cities and towns and aims to take its offering to 2,000 more towns by mid-next year.

Founded by Thirukumaran Nagarajan, Kartheeswaran K K, Ashutosh Vikram, Sharath Loganathan, and Vasudevan Chinnathambi, six-year-old Ninjacart enables retailers and restaurants to source fresh produce directly from farmers at competitive prices and also delivers it to businesses, including mandis.

Ninjacart works closely with the farmers and has to date helped over 1,00,000 farmers across 150 villages to generate better revenues. 

Besides Walmart and Flipkart, Ninjacart has also raised funds from the likes of Tiger Global, Accel, Tanglin, Steadview, Syngenta, Nandan Nilekani, and Qualcomm.

The company directly competes with Waycool and Vegrow. While Vegrow already raised $13 million in July this year, Waycool is gearing up for a larger round.

The investment also takes Ninjacart among the largest fundraising exercise by an agritech startup in India. In October, DeHaat picked up $115 million in its Series D round whereas AgroStar raised $70 million earlier this month.