DeHaat

DeHaat - Indian agrotech startup, founded in 2012. The company is developing a business to farmers (B2F) platform. The service offers a range of services, for example, individual farm consultations, financial services and the search for buyers of agricultural products.

History

2021

Attracting $115 million of investments

On October 27, 2021, it became known that the Indian agrotech startup DeHaat raised $115 million as part of the Series D financing round, led by the Belgian investment firm Sofina and Indian Lightrock. Prosus, RTP A Leonid Boguslavsky, Sequoia Capital India and FMO also invested in the project.

Shashank Kumar, co-founder and CEO of DeHaat, noted that the company seeks to create the world's largest agricultural platform.

We have raised $157 million from major investors over the past 30 months, and our team has grown to a team of more than 850 professionals with deep knowledge of growth and strategy, supply chain, technology and agricultural sciences, he said.

Leonid Boguslavsky Foundation invested in Indian agrotech project

The last 7 months have been phenomenal: DeHaat has grown 5 times. Thus, now we are ready to repeat success in all the main agricultural clusters of India in the next 12-15 months, "he added.

DeHaat claims to have built a rural retail network of more than 3,000 micro-entrepreneurs for delivery to the 'last mile' as well as for aggregation, serving more than 650,000 farmers located in Bihar, UP, Jharkhand and Odisha. Since September 2021, the company began to expand into new regions, offering many agricultural services for farmers.

According to a company representative, DeHaat is determined to continue investing in this technology. Earlier in 2021, it acquired Farm Guide, a SaaS-based platform to provide farmers with information and guidance from satellites. The current technical team has grown to 120 people, creating unique artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions related to crop consulting, last-mile supply chain tracking, and the B2B SaaS agrotechnical platform for input sellers as well as product buyers.

Vaidehi Ravindran, a partner at Lightrock India, said: We have monitored the progress of DeHaat over the years and are impressed by their rapid growth trajectory combined with a strong network of micro entrepreneurs. DeHaat built the largest network for farmers on the first mile. Good opportunities for transforming agriculture by increasing farmers' yields and incomes.[1]

Attracting $30 million of investments

In January 2021, DeHaat announced the attraction of $30 million in investments. Among the participants in the financing round was the RTP Fondation of Leonid Boguslavsky, who acted as the main investor along with Prosus Ventures. Sequoia Capital India, the Dutch Enterprise Development Bank (FMO), Omnivore and AgFunder also participated in the transaction.

The funds raised are planned to be spent on scaling the DeHaat farm network throughout western and central India. In addition, part of the money will be used to attract more small entrepreneurs and farmers (their number is planned to increase to 1 million by June 2021). The company also automates its supply chain and develops a complex data analysis system.

Founder of the RTP Global Foundation Leonid Boguslavsky

According to DeHaat, only a third of the crop produced by Indian farmers reaches large markets. Manufacturers have difficulty finding buyers of their products. The startup uses artificial intelligence to advise farmers free of charge about what they should sow during the season. DeHaat helps farmers sell products to wholesale customers such as Udaan, Reliance Fresh, Zomato.

This industry is on the verge of massive transformation due to the simplicity of regulation, farmers are becoming organized and are increasingly using smartphones. DeHaat make the most of these trends to create a new generation product in the agricultural supply chain, "said Abhishek Mohan, vice president of Sequoia Capital.[2]

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