Agritech startup Produze raises $2.6 Mn led by Accel

Cross-border agritech platform Produze has raised $2.6 million in its seed round led by Accel Partners. The round also saw participation from a clutch of investors including All In Capital, Thirukumaran Nagarajan, Kartheeswaran KK, Anilkumar SG, Pawan Gupta, Angad Kikla and Ranjith Mukundan, among others. 

The Bengaluru-based startup plans to use the fresh funds to digitize its cross border supply chain as well as expand procurement and distribution capabilities.

Founded by Ben Mathew, Gaurav Agrawal, Rakesh Sasidharan and Emil Soman earlier this year, Produze enables agri producers to sell directly to global retailers and distributors. The platform digitizes procurement operations through a network of source producers, digitized exporting operations and importing operations.

In March, Accel India had raised $650 million in commitments for its seventh fund to invest in new opportunities like emerging tech across India and Southeast Asia.

Around 100 agritech startups raised close to $1.33 billion across 139 deals between January 2020 and June 2022, according to a report published by Entrackr. This includes approximately 44 deals worth $539 million this year, 37 deals worth $155 million in 2020, and 58 deals worth $636 million in 2021.

Moreover, Vegrow, a B2B agritech platform for fruits and vegetables, raised $25 million in its Series B investment. Chennai-based agritech startup Veg Route also joined the list with a $1.1 million seed round.