Full-stack Agritech Platform DeHaat Raises US$30 Million Series C led by Prosus Ventures

DeHaat, the technology-based platform offering end-to-end agricultural services to farmers in India, today announced it has raised US$30 million in Series C funding, led by Prosus Ventures (formerly Naspers Ventures). RTP Global co-invested in the round with participation from existing investors, Sequoia India, FMO, Omnivore & AgFunder.

New Delhi, India - 19 January, 2021 - DeHaat, the technology-based platform offering end-to-end agricultural services to farmers in India, today announced it has raised US$30 million in Series C funding, led by Prosus Ventures (formerly Naspers Ventures). RTP Global co-invested in the round with participation from existing investors, Sequoia India, FMO, Omnivore & AgFunder.


Shashank Kumar, Co-Founder & CEO, DeHaat said, "I am extremely proud that the DeHaat value proposition is very well demonstrated at a sizeable scale and that we are improving the livelihoods of Indian farmers and rural microentreprenuers with the help of technology. The recent investment from marquee investors like Prosus Ventures, RTP Global and others is a strong validation of our goal to become the world's largest farmer aggregator and will help us scale up in both size and scope."

Based in Gurgaon and Patna, DeHaat was founded in 2012 by IIT, IIM , NIT almuni Amrendra Singh, Shyam Sundar, Adarsh Srivastav and Shashank Kumar. The company is a technology-based business to farmers (B2F) platform that offers full-stack agricultural services to farmers, including distribution of high-quality agricultural inputs, customized farm advisory, access to financial services, and market linkages for selling their produce.

With an aim to aggregate 10 million Indian farmers while helping them to also increase their profitability, the platform integrates a digital marketplace with a rural network of last-mile service delivery centers and connects various agricultural companies with farmers.

DeHaat has experienced 3.5x annual growth over the past two years and has created a rural retail network of more than 1300 DeHaat microentreprenuers for last mile delivery, serving more than 360,000 farmers located across Bihar, UP, Jharkhand & Odisha.

With a strong 60 member tech team, DeHaat has developed various web and mobile interfaces which deliver 100% transparency to farmers regarding associated agricultural input companies as well as bulk buyers of agricultural produce. With the Series C investment, the company plans to strengthen the technology platform and expand geographically to other parts of India.

Ashutosh Sharma, Head of India Investments, Prosus Ventures said, "Prosus Ventures invests in industries around the world where innovation can significantly address big societal needs. DeHaat is catering to a massive market in India with the agriculture sector worth more than $350 billion to the country's economy and consisting of an estimated 140 million+ farmers. Through its end-to-end agricultural services offerings, DeHaat will have a major societal impact in India, improving the earning potential for Indian farmers and overall yield for the sector while also enabling microentrepreneurs all over the country, including in rural areas where there is often less income opportunity.

Galina Chifina, Partner, RTP Global said, "We have been watching DeHaat for 18 months and have been impressed with the speed of development that the team is demonstrating. Agritech is exploding in India and DeHaat is building a unique infrastructure platform and is one of the only companies delivering an end-to-end solution for the farming community in India. It is a challenging market and Shashank and the team have the expertise needed to scale. We're excited to be onboard and lend our support."

Currently operating across Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Odisha, DeHaat provides farmers with access to over 4,000 agricultural inputs, combined with AI-based customised crop advisory content of pest and disease management for major crops delivered via mobile app and call centers. The platform also aggregates corn, wheat, rice, bajra, fruits, and vegetables from farmers on its network and directly supplies to over 500 commodity bulk buyers, including retail chains, e-commerce players, FMCG giants, and SME food processors.

Dexter capital was the exclusive advisor of this funding round.


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About DeHaat:
DeHaat is a technology-based platform offering full stack agricultural services to farmers, including distribution of high quality agricultural inputs, customized farm advisory, access to financial services, and market linkages for selling their produce. For more information on DeHaat, please visit: http://agrevolution.in.

About Prosus:
Prosus is a global consumer internet group and one of the largest technology investors in the world. Operating and investing globally in markets with long-term growth potential, Prosus builds leading consumer internet companies that empower people and enrich communities.

The group is focused on building meaningful businesses in the online classifieds, food delivery, and payments and fintech sectors in markets including India, Russia and Brazil. Through its ventures team, Prosus invests in areas including edtech and health, Prosus actively seeks new opportunities to partner with exceptional entrepreneurs who are using technology to improve people's daily lives.

Every day, millions of people use the products and services of companies that Prosus has invested in, acquired or built, including Avito, Brainly, BYJU'S, Bykea, Codecademy, DappRadar, dott, ElasticRun, eMAG, Eruditus, Honor, iFood, Klar, LazyPay, letgo, Meesho, Movile, OLX, PayU, Red Dot Payment, Remitly, SimilarWeb, Shipper, Skillsoft, SoloLearn, Swiggy, and Udemy.

Hundreds of millions of people have made the platforms of its associates a part of their daily lives. For listed companies where we have an interest, please see: Tencent (www.tencent.com; SEHK:00700), Mail.ru (www.corp.mail.ru; LSE:MAIL), Trip.com Group Limited ("Trip.com") (NASDAQ:TCOM), and DeliveryHero (www.deliveryhero.com; Xetra:DHER).

Today, Prosus companies and associates help improve the lives of around a fifth of the world's population.
Prosus has a primary listing on Euronext Amsterdam (AEX:PRX) and a secondary listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (XJSE:PRX), and is majority owned by Naspers.

For more information, please visit www.prosus.com.

About RTP Global:
RTP Global is a VC firm with a strong track record of investing in technology. Originally founded as ru-Net in 2000 in Russia, RTP Global has invested in 90 companies founded in more than 10 countries across U.S., Europe, India and South-East Asia. Five early-stage investments became multi-billion public companies: Yandex, EPAM, Delivery Hero, RingCentral, and Datadog. Recently RTP has closed it's USD 650 mn fund to invest in tech driven business models across globe and few of their recent Indian portfolios are Khatabook, Cred.

About Sequoia India:
Sequoia India helps daring founders build legendary companies, from idea to IPO and beyond. Sequoia India operates in Southeast Asia and India where we actively partner with founders from a wide range of companies, across categories, including BYJUs, Carousell, Druva, GO-JEK, OYO Rooms, Tokopedia, Truecaller, Zilingo, Zomato and more.

We spur founders to push the boundaries of what's possible. In partnering with Sequoia, startups benefit from 47 years of tribal knowledge and lessons learned working with companies like Airbnb, Alibaba, Apple, Dropbox, Google, JD.com, LinkedIn, Meituan and Stripe early on. From the beginning, non-profits have been the backbone of our LP base, which means founders' accomplishments make a meaningful difference.

The majority of our profits - over $16 billion since 2000 alone - are returned to great causes, like the Ford Foundation, Mayo Clinic and MIT. For more information on Sequoia's work in India and SE Asia, visit www.sequoiacap.com/india.

About FMO
FMO is the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank. As a leading impact investor, FMO supports sustainable private sector growth in developing countries and emerging markets by investing in ambitious projects and entrepreneurs. FMO believes that a strong private sector leads to economic and social development and has a 50-year proven track-record of empowering people to employ their skills and improve their quality of life. FMO focuses on three sectors that have high development impact: financial institutions, energy, and agribusiness, food & water. With a committed portfolio of EUR 10.4 billion spanning over 83 countries, FMO is one of the larger bilateral private sector developments banks globally. For more information: please visit www.fmo.nl.

About Omnivore:
Omnivore is a venture capital firm, based in India, which funds entrepreneurs building the future of agriculture and food systems. For further information on Omnivore, please visit: http://omnivore.vc.

About AgFunder:
AgFunder is an online venture capital platform that invests in agrifoodtech startups globally. For further information on AgFunder, please visit: https://agfunder.com.

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