Waycool raises $40 Mn led by 57 Stars Global

B2B food and agritech platform Waycool has raised $40 million in an equity and debt round led by alternative investment firm 57 Stars Global Innovation Fund. This is the second round of funding for the Chennai-based firm in 2022.

The investment is the first transaction for the Washington-based 57 Stars’ Direct Impact Fund and the second investment for 57 Stars Global Innovation Fund 2, as per a joint press statement.

WayCool claims to work with more than 150,000 farmers and 100,000 clients who source agricultural and dairy products from the company.

Founded by Karthik Jayaraman and Sanjay Dasari, the company had closed its $117 million Series D round in January from LightRock, LightBox, FMO, Lightsmith, World Bank Group’s IFC, Redwood Equity and Gawa Capital.

Waycool has emerged as one of the top startups in India to mop up large funding in a single round. Ninjacart, which raised $145 million led by Flipkart and Walmart, is leading the list followed by DeHaat [$115 million], Absolute [~$88 million], AgroStar [$70 million] and Arya.ag [$60 million].

The company had also made a couple of acquisitions this year which include SV Agri, a Pune-based fully integrated player in the potato supply chain and Gramworkx, a cloud-based smart farm resource management tool.

While Waycool is yet to file its annual financial statement for FY22, its operating revenue grew 40% in FY21 to Rs 382.33 crore. Close to 98% of Waycool’s income came through sales of traded goods which stood at Rs 380.12 crore. The company’s losses jumped 52.8% in FY21 to Rs 148.69 crore in the fiscal year ending March 2021.