DeHaat, a company that provides farmers in India with a variety of agricultural services, has just closed a $60 million fundraising round to expand its operations throughout the nation and attain profitability in two years.
According to a source familiar with the situation, the Patna and Gurgaon-based startup's Series E fundraising was co-led by Sofina Ventures and Temasek, and the company was valued at between $700 million and $800 million. RTP Global Partners, Prosus Ventures, and Lightrock India, all of which had previously invested, joined the latest round as well.
While farming in India is worth $350 billion, farmers there confront some problems that have gone mostly neglected until disruptive startups like DeHaat came along. Problems include an insufficient runway, difficulty finding consumers for crops, and difficulty obtaining necessary agri-inputs.
While companies like Reliance and Adani Group do provide certain services to farmers, their overall engagement in the agricultural industry is still quite modest. Due to the country's rapidly expanding population and the effects of climate change, Indian farmers must rapidly embrace technology to increase and sustain crop production.
DeHaat utilizes AI to assist India's 1.5 million farmers in locating raw materials, locating consulting and financing services, and selling products across 11 states, 110,000 villages, and over 150 zip codes.
More than 2,000 agricultural organizations, such as input manufacturers, food and consumer product corporations, banks, and insurance agencies, have joined the initiative. It employs a network of over 10,000 "micro-entrepreneurs" to manage its complex network of "last-mile" suppliers.
Founder and CEO Shashank Kumar told TechCrunch that after two years of rapid growth across many significant Indian states, the company's immediate emphasis would be on expanding its footprint inside the existing zip codes and on attaining break-even profitability within the next year.
Kumar predicts DeHaat will turn a profit within 40 months of launching with the additional cash. We won't be expanding to any additional regions for the next several months. He vowed that in the areas where his company operates, "at least for the next three to five months, we are not adding any new geographies. "We will continue to serve more farmers and broaden our network of centers in the states where we are operational,"
For the time being, the southern Indian states are not a focus for DeHaat's expansion. As for the other states, Kumar said the business is planning to begin growing there in roughly a year.
Kumar said that in the present market environment, it is difficult to attract investors. Since the global economy turned so suddenly for the worst, investors have been much more hesitant to put money into local firms.
According to Kumar, "the lens has shifted," and now investors are only interested in assets that can provide income quickly. As a bonus, "our unit economics are quite good; whatever burn we have is for additional regions," which was an advantage unique to DeHaat. He said, "We raised the round to be ready for all the prospects," and revealed that around two-thirds of the previous $115 million investment round is still available to DeHaat.
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