Agritech platform Arya.ag, operated by Arya Collateral Warehousing Services Pvt. Ltd, has raised $29 million (Rs 242 crore) in a pre-Series D funding round.
Switzerland-based investment firm Blue Earth Capital led the round. The round also saw participation from existing investors Asia Impact and Quona Capital, the startup said in a statement Wednesday.
The grain-commerce startup will use the funds to develop its technological stack and add more users on its platform.
“With these funds, we plan to expand our reach, serve more farmers and buyers, and introduce innovative offerings,” said Prasanna Rao, co-founder and chief executive officer, Arya.ag.
Setuka Partners served as the strategic advisor for this equity round.
Founded by Prasanna Rao, Chattanathan Devarajan, and Anand Chandra, the Arya.ag platform connects sellers and buyers of agricultural produce and claims to provide assurance on quantity, quality and payments. Arya.ag enables farmgate storage and provides finance options, which allows farmers to sell the produce at their convenience.
In the financial year ended in March 2024, the startup clocked Rs 17 crore in profit and Rs 360 crore in revenue.
Arya.ag was originally part of the JM Baxi Group. In 2013, co-founders Rao, Chattanathan Devarajan and Anand Chandra acquired a controlling stake in the company. Previously, Rao was the head of farm commodity finance at ICICI Bank while Anand was ICICI’s national product head for agricultural commodity finance.
In January 2022, the startup raised $60 million in a mix of equity and debt funding as part of its Series C round. Valued at about $300 million, the agritech startup’s Series C funding round was led by Asia Impact, Lightrock India and Quona Capital. The debt funding round was led by the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC).
The startup also made two acquisitions in 2022. In June 2022, it acquired agriculture-focused data science company Prakshep for an undisclosed sum. This was followed by the firm’s investment in Assert AI, a software-as-a-service startup focused on computer vision. The partnership was aimed at helping Arya.ag’s artificial intelligence and deeptech expertise for its storage, financing, and commerce offerings.
