Agritech startup Ninjacart recently announced a $145 million worth strategic round from existing investors Walmart and Flipkart. Apart from the future plans, Ninjacart did not disclose further details of the transaction including round break up and valuation.
Fintrackr sifted through Ninjacart’s regulatory filings which shows that Walmart and Flipkart have invested $72.5 million each in the Series D round. This was the third joint investment by Flipkart and its controlling entity Walmart in the Bengaluru-based startup.
As per Fintrackr’s estimates, Ninjacart has picked the fresh funds at a post money valuation of $815 million. This is a significant jump in the company’s valuation which was around $502 million in May last year.
Ninajacart’s $145 million round was the largest fundraising exercise by an agritech startup in India. Earlier this month, Waycool had announced a $117 million Series D round. In October, DeHaat picked up $115 million in its Series D round whereas AgroStar raised $70 million in December.
The Thirukumaran Nagarajan-led company has also become the highest valued agritech startup in India. As per Fintrackr’s estimates, DeHaat was valued at around $500 million while Waycool is valued at around $460 million. Waycool was valued at $375 million during its second tranche of Series D round. AgroStar, which has raised $112 million to date, did not disclose its valuation in the last round.
Ninjacart connects producers of food directly or farmers with retailers, restaurants, and service providers using in-house applications. The company claims that its supply chain is equipped to move 1400 tonnes of perishables from farms to businesses across seven cities – Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi, Gurugram, Mumbai and Pune.
As per the seven-year-old startup, it works closely with the farmers and has till date helped over 1,00,000 farmers across 150 villages to generate better revenue.
Ninjacart competes with the likes of Waycool, VeGrow and to some extent with Bijak. Sequoia’s Surge-backed Bijak had also kicked off its Series B round with $20 million at a valuation of $163 million. Entrackr had exclusively reported the development. The company was reportedly in talks to raise around $35 million at $220-250 million valuation.
Earlier this month, Ninjacart had announced an employee stock ownership plan or ESOP buyback worth Rs 100 crore or $13.3 million for its employees.
