Business-to-business (B2B) food commodity marketplace TechnifyBiz said on Tuesday it has raised over $2 million (Rs 14 crore) in its seed round of funding.
The startup raised the funding from agritech-focused venture capital investor Omnivore and social venture capital fund Insitor Impact Asia Fund, TechnifyBiz said in a statement.
Digital payment gateway startup Razorpay’s founders Shashank Kumar and Harshil Mathur also participated in the funding round, the statement added.
VCCircle had reported in November that Omnivore and Insitor were set to invest in TechnifyBiz, operated by Connedit Business Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
Abhishek Agarwal, co-founder at TechnifyBiz, said the funding will help the firm double its base of small and medium enterprises (SME) food processors and farmer groups across the country. The investment will also help it strengthen its supply clusters across Bihar, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Jammu, and Orissa, he added.
Delhi-based TechnifyBiz was launched in 2017 by Agarwal and Akash Sharma. Agarwal, an IIT-Roorkee alumnus, was in the past associated with the National Service Scheme and Spic Macay. Sharma, an IIT-Delhi alumnus, had earlier co-founded logistics startup Delivree King and later worked with MobieFit Technologies.
TechnifyBiz enables farmers to sell non-perishable commodities directly to supermarket chains, processed food manufacturers and confectioneries. The platform offers items such as almonds, cashew nuts, walnuts and honey.
“There is massive unmet demand for high-quality food commodities in India, which TechnifyBiz is helping to bridge by developing backend supply infrastructure and technology-enabled services,” Sharma said.
TechnifyBiz said it is recording a monthly revenue run rate of Rs 10 crore. The firm expects sales to cross Rs 75 crore this fiscal year ending March 2020 from Rs 15 crore last year.
The startup had earlier raised angel funding from R Narayan of Power2SME, Rajnish Gupta of Aakash Namkeen and Indigram Labs.
Deals in the segment
TechnifyBiz is one of several agri-tech startups that have raised funds in recent years, as entrepreneurs and investors look for solutions to solve the myriad problems in India’s agriculture sector.
Agricxlab, Eruvaka, CropIn, Crofarm, LeanAgri and Ecozen Solutions are among the agri-tech startups that have also raised funding over the past year.
The most notable startup in this segment is Ninjacart. The business-to-business agri-marketing platform raised $90 million from marquee US investment firm Tiger Global in April last year and an undisclosed amount from from US retail giant Walmart Inc and its Indian e-commerce arm Flipkart in December.
Investors
Insitor is a social impact fund that backs companies that offer low-income families options for increased access to healthcare, education, affordable housing, water, sanitation, and clean energy. The fund invests in India, Myanmar, Cambodia and Pakistan.
Some of its recent bets include eye-care chain Disha Medical Services Pvt. Ltd and Delhi-based Aviom India Housing Finance Pvt. Ltd. Other companies it has backed in India include Biosense Technologies, Mera Gao Power and Sustaintech India.
Omnivore is investing out of its second fund, which marked the final close at $97 million (Rs 679 crore) last year.
In December, the firm participated in B2B agri-tech startup Bijak’s seed funding round. Its other recent investments include artificial intelligence-powered startup Fasal, online marketplace for farm products and services DeHaat and Chandigarh-based agri-analytics startup AgNext.
