Arya.ag, one of India’s largest integrated grain commerce platforms, has raised $60 million in a mix of equity and debt funding.
The equity round, which was part of the company’s Series C funding round, was led by Asia Impact SA, Lightrock India and Quona Capital. The debt funding round was led by US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), among other investors, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.
Asia Impact SA was advised by Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co, with a team led by Manav Nagaraj and KS Bhargava, the company said. Setuka Partners was the advisor on debt finance from US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC).
With the new fundraise, the platform, owned and operated by Arya Collateral Warehousing Services Pvt. Ltd, is now valued at $300 million, Prasanna Rao, Arya.ag’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer, told VCCircle in a virtual interaction.
The company plans to use the funds to enhance its technology and hire more people in the tech department, Rao told VCCircle. Arya.ag is expecting a five-fold increase in volumes on its platform over the next 12 months. The company will also use the funds to penetrate deeper into domestic geographies, he added.
The 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. The company claims to have visibility of over 100,000 commodity storage points across the country, and said that it assures year-round supply to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and corporate buyers with embedded financing options.
“We have visibility on grains worth over $ 2 billion on the Arya platform, and this number is growing rapidly as we gather data from warehouses across the country. This funding round will help us gain market share for our core offerings, and add more services to consolidate our position as India’s most trusted platform in agriculture,” said Chattanathan Devarajan, Co-founder and Managing Director, Arya.ag.
Arya.ag was originally part of the JM Baxi Group. In 2013, Co-founders Prasanna Rao, Chattanathan Devarajan, and Anand Chandra acquired a controlling stake in the company. Before taking a controlling stake in Arya, Rao was the Head of farm commodity finance at ICICI Bank, while Anand was previously ICICI’s National Product Head for agricultural commodity finance. Arya.ag said that the grain commerce market in India is worth $100 billion, and it aims to capture over 20% of it.
The company is backed by Quona Capital, LGT Lightstone Aspada and Omnivore. In December 2020, it had raised $21 million as a part of its Series B funding round.
“Arya’s unparalleled reach across rural India, coupled with its tech-driven integrated service model, has made it one of the fastest-growing agri-commerce platforms in India. Arya is successfully bridging the trust gap in post-harvest agri transactions through complete transparency and assurance on quality, quantity and payments,” said Varun Malhotra, Partner, Quona Capital.
In March 2020, Arya.ag had raised $6 million in a pre-Series B funding round. Omnivore and LGT Lightstone Apsada have been backers of the company since the Series A funding round in December 2016.
