Silk-tech startup ReshaMandi on Tuesday said that it has raised $30 million as a part of its Series A funding round in an equity and debt mix led by global alternative investment manager Creation Investments.
The equity funding also saw participation from 9Unicorns, Venture Catalysts, Sandeep Singhal from Nexus Venture Partners, IndiaMART founder Brijesh Agarwal, and Omnivore, which also led the seed round of ReshaMandi.
Debt investors in the startup include Northern Arc, Alteria, Innoven, and Stride Ventures.
The year-old startup digitises the silk supply chain and provides full-stack support including logistics, finance and scientific testing to stakeholders.
“This round of funding will allow us to expand into newer territories and operationalise our research and development (R&D) work while helping further stakeholders reap the benefits of our innovations and efficiencies. On a personal note, I would like to thank each and every one of our customers, suppliers, investors, and of course the ever-growing ReshaMandi team,” said Mayank Tiwari, chief executive officer (CEO), ReshaMandi.
ReshaMandi has on-boarded more than 35,000 small businesses spanning across farmers, small and medium enterprise manufacturers, and retailers onto its supply chain, in the first 15 months of its operations.
According to the company, its processes have helped increase small business incomes by 35-55% and pushed the use of indigenous raw silk dramatically.
“We are delighted to lead this funding round for ReshaMandi. With India producing 30% of the world’s silk and still needing more to meet demand, companies like ReshaMandi can make the whole silk supply chain run more efficiently. Ultimately, this benefits the whole ecosystem – from farmers and weavers to clothing manufacturers and buyers,” said Tyler Day, partner at Creation Investments.
ReshaMandi plans to expand its agricultural business in all major silk-producing states across India while also going deeper in weaving clusters including Banaras, Salem, Kanchipuram, Maheshwar, and Dharmavaram.
Over the next six months, the company also aims to extend its retail footprint further across smaller towns of Agra, Kota, Gorakhpur, Dhanbad, and Ranchi, among others.
“Our supply chain ensures that silk becomes affordable, and is available to middle-class households across the country, with a design range and price points never seen before. This will change the way people in Tier-II shop for silk apparel,” said Utkarsh Apoorva, co-founder and chief business officer, ReshaMandi.
The larger vision for the startup is to ultimately create a zero-waste circular economy that will have a significant social, environmental, and economic impact for all stakeholders of the silk supply chain.
In August, VCCircle reported Temasek-backed Venture debt company InnoVen Capital invested in Reshamandi.
A slew of tech startups focused on agriculture have attracted funding. Since April last year, startups such as Bijak and Intello Labs have raised Series A rounds.
Last month, business-to-business agricultural-commerce platform SuperZop raised $4 million ( Rs 29.6 crore) in Series A funding from Belgium-based Incofin Investment Management’s India Progress Fund.
In July, 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.
Earlier this year, DeHaat, which is run by Green Agrevolution Pvt Ltd, raised $30 million (around Rs 220 crore) in a Series C funding round led by Prosus Ventures.