Agritech startup Arya.ag gets $60 million, valuation at $300 million

The post-money valuation of the company has touched $300 million, a senior company executive said.

While $46 million came in as equity investment, $14 million was raised via debt from investors such as US Development Finance Corporation (USDFC) and ResponsAbility, a Geneva-based development finance institution, Arya.ag’s cofounder and MD Prasanna Rao told ET.

The company is in talks to raise $100 million next to fuel its further growth ambitions.

“Given that there has been substantial growth in our volumes and that the lending book has expanded, to be able to sustain that, we will raise more capital soon. We have already initiated a $100 million fundraise which should be done in the first half of the current calendar year,” Rao said. “We expect the company’s revenues to reach Rs 1,000 crore over the next 24 months.”

Founded by Rao, Chattanathan Devarajan and Anand Chandra, Arya is an integrated grain commerce platform that focuses on offering post-harvest services. It operates across 425 districts in 21 states and has 10,000 warehouses. The company has $2 billion worth grain and has disbursed $600 million of finance annually. Its current annualised revenue run rate is Rs 300 crore.

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“Through the (Covid-19) pandemic, we have seen Arya transform agri-commerce across India,” said Matteo Pusineri, director of Asia Impact SA. “Arya will help accomplish Asia Impact’s vision to integrate rural under-served farming communities across Asia to markets at scale.”

It has created a viable option for enhancing the market power of smallholders and their organizations. “We intend to use the funding to capture more than 20% of the $100 billion grain commerce market,” Rao said.

The company manages over 3 million tonnes of grain across 21 states.

“They have built a strong and profitable foundation over the last few years, and with the addition of the marketplace, are in a period of accelerated growth and impact,” said Vaidhehi Ravindran, partner at Lightrock India.

Varun Malhotra, partner at Quona Capital, said Arya “is successfully bridging the trust gap in post-harvest agri transactions through complete transparency and assurance on quality, quantity and payments.”