B2B agritech marketplace Vegrow raises $25 million in funding

“We will use the capital to expand our geographic presence, hiring, beef up our tech stack and to grow further,” said Jain.

The Bengaluru-based company’s existing investors Matrix Partners India, Elevation Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Ankur Capital also participated in this round.

Last year, Vegrow had raised $13 million in a series A funding round co-led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Elevation Capital.

Founded in 2020 by Praneeth Kumar, Mrudhukar Batchu, Kiran Naik and Shobhit Jain, Vegrow helps bridge demand and supply for fruits, aggregating multiple channels (wholesalers, semi-wholesalers, modern trade and general trade) in 100 cities on the demand side and more than 20,000 farmers on the supply side. The founders together hold around 40% of the equity, with the institutional investors holding the remaining.

According to Jain, the company processes more than 200 tonnes of fruits daily. Vegrow has grown 15 times in the past one year, with a gross margin of about 20%, he said. “The growth has been unlocked on the back of our deep tech and data stack across the value chain. We have built capabilities to harness farmer chatter, estimate farmland produce and measure demand across tier-I, II and III markets,” he said.

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The company has an annualised revenue run rate of $200 million. We aim to grow sustainably and deliver a $5 billion outcome within the next five years,” said Jain.

According to the company, India’s fruit market is valued at $60 billion where every fruit is a multi-billion-dollar opportunity.

“We have been tracking the agritech space closely through our existing investments in fresh produce and animal protein segments. The fruit industries, being historically unorganised, fragmented and inefficient, are poised for similar tech-led disruption,” said Ashutosh Sharma, head of investments, India at Prosus Ventures. “Vegrow has catapulted to pole position by serving pan-India demand through its focus on scale and technology. We are excited to back them as they chase the next level of growth in the country.”

Agritech startups in the country saw record funding in 2021 and more than $480 million has flown into such firms so far this year, as per data from Venture Intelligence.

Those who have raised capital from risk investors recently include DeHaat, Gramophone, Reshamandi, AgNext Technologies, Cropin, Bijak, Onato, BharatAgri and TartanSense.