Akshamaala Solutions Pvt Ltd, which runs and operates Unnati, a fintech driven agriculture service platform has raised Rs 60 crore in a Series A funding round led by Nabventures Fund, an early-stage government-backed venture growth fund, the company said in a statement.
Orios Venture Partners and Incofin Investment Management also participated in the round. Unnati will use the funds to strengthen its tech infrastructure and increase its uStore network, the company said.
Unnati is also adding new features to its farmer and retailer applications and plans to introduce artificial intelligence led features related to farm diagnostics, farming lifecycle management and supply chain management for partners. Unnati is investing into artificial intelligence and machine learning platforms for bringing the latest digital tools to farmers and uStore partners, the company said.
“Unnati has built several innovative solutions to enable farmers and retailers to grow and scale their business. We will continue to work towards our ultimate goal, which is to bring all farmers across the country onto a single digital platform which nurtures ‘farmpreneurs’ enabling them to double their farm income,” Ashok Prasad, chief executive officer and co-founder, Unnati said. Investment bank Equity360 was the advisor on the deal.
The company, founded in 2017, is aiming at creating 5 million ‘farmpreneurs’ by enabling them with relevant digital tools to power their farming business, it said.
Unnati is also eyeing geographical expansion to Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, while expanding further in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra. The platform till date claims to have served more than 3 lakh farmers through its uStore network.
Nabventures in October had told VCCircle that it will increase its overall investments in the agritech space to Rs 150 crore in the next 30 days.
The fundraise by Unnati comes at a time when a slew of tech startups focused on agriculture have attracted funding from investors in the past few months.
In July, agritech startup Crofarm Agriproducts raised $10.2 million as part of its Series A round of financing for its community group buying platform Otipy.
In the same month, Vegrow raised $13 million (Rs 97 crore) as part of its Series A funding round from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Elevation Capital.
FarMart is among several startups in the larger agri-tech segment to pull in funding from strategic players and investors. This year, venture capital funds have already pumped in $234 million in 32 agritech startups till September.
Over the past year, DeHaat, Jai Kisan, AgNext, WayCool, and Animall have raised $115.95 million cumulatively. Last month, business-to-business agricultural-commerce platform SuperZop raised $4 million ( Rs 29.6 crore) and Crofarm. Agriproducts raised a $10.2 million (Rs 76 crores) Series A round.