Update: Aquaconnect has announced that it has raised $15 million in Series A round led by Lok Capital with a participation of Louis Dreyfus Company Ventures, Suneight Investment along with existing investors including Omnivore, Rebright Partners, Flourish Ventures, HATCH and other debt investors.
The company will utilize the proceeds to strengthen its portfolio of scalable solutions and widen its service offerings in both the pre-harvest and post-harvest aquaculture value chain (to input retailers, seafood buyers and other stakeholders), the company said in a press release.
Original story follows:
Fullstack aquaculture startup Aquaconnect has raised $8.41 million in an ongoing funding round from Louis Dreyfus Company (Louis Dreyfus Company Ventures B.V.) with a participation of Lok Capital, Suneight Investment, Flourish Ventures et al. This is the second equity round for the Bengaluru-based firm in 2022.
The board at Aquaconnect has passed a special resolution to issue 3 equity shares and 1,38,134 compulsory convertible preference shares (CCPS) at an issue price of Rs 5,031 per share to raise Rs 69.5 crore or $8.41 million, according to its regulatory filing with the RoC.
Louis Dreyfus Company Ventures B.V. has poured in Rs 20.07 crore followed by Lok Capital which infused Rs 18.65 crore. Suneight Investment, Flourish Ventures, and aquaculture accelerator HATCH (via its Hatch Accelerator Fund LP) infused Rs 8.17 crore, Rs 7.85 crore, and Rs 2.2 crore respectively. Further, Rebright Partners and AgFunder also joined the round with Rs 6.28 crore each.
Five-year-old Aquaconnect integrates the network of aquaculture farmers in Asia with predictive SaaS tools for farm management. It also has an omnichannel marketplace and leverages artificial intelligence and satellite remote sensing technologies to deliver maximum output.
As per its website, it serves over 27,000 pin codes across four states with a network of more than 60K farmers and 30 brand partnerships.
As per Fintrackr’s estimates, the company has been valued at around Rs 181 crore or $22 million (post-money). Aquaconnect has raised around $28 million to date including an $8 million debt in March this year. Aquaconnect is likely to mop up more money in this round and its valuation would change accordingly.
Aquaconnect’s revenue from operations jumped 7.7X to Rs 34.46 crore during FY22 as compared to Rs 4.5 crore in FY21. As per its annual financial statement with the RoC, the company’s losses also surged 2.3X to Rs 11.2 crore in FY21 against Rs 4.83 crore during the preceding fiscal year (FY21). While the company doesn’t have any direct competition, it competes with advisory firms focused on fisheries and shrimps.
