B2B aggrotech market place for fruits Vegrow, has raised $25 Million in its Series B investment round led by Prosus Ventures. The company is a tech platform partnering with farmers, aggregating supply and selling to organized demand through partnership.
Current investors Matrix Partners India, Elevation Capital, Lightspeed India, Ankur Capital and angel investor Sanjiv Rangrass also participated in the funding round, the company said.
Vegrow, claims it has grown 15 times in the past year, with a gross margin of about 20%. “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,” Shobhit Jain, Co-Founder of Vegrow said.
“Being a table-top consumption product, fruits are consumed raw, and consumers are highly sensitive to the quality. Vegrow adds value at source and supply chain to ensure and preserve the quality consistently. We are very excited to have Prosus lead this round and all our internals double down their partnership. We aim to grow sustainably and deliver a $5B. outcome within the next 5 years.”, said Shobhit.
Vegrow’s website reveals the fresh fruits & vegetable business has an addressable market size of $43 Bn. At the same time, an Inc42 report on India’s aggrotech market suggested that India’s aggrotech opportunity is expected to grow to $24.1 Bn by 2025. A Bain & Company report pegs India’s aggrotech market at $35 Bn by 2025.
Vegrow, Co-Founder Shobhit, states the aggrotech startup would use the incoming funds to expand its geographic presence, develop its tech stack and hire across multiple positions. The Bengaluru-based startup last raised $13 Mn in July 2021 in a Series A investment round.
Vegrow serves over 100 cities
Ashutosh Sharma, Head of Investments, India at Prosus Ventures, shared, “We have been tracking the agritech space closely through our existing investments in fresh produce and animal protein segments. The fruits industry being historically unorganized, fragmented and inefficient, is poised for similar tech-led disruption. 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.”
Founded in 2020 by Praneeth Kumar, Shobhit Jain, Mrudhukar Batchu and Kiran Naik, Vegrow claims to have a presence in more than 100 cities and it helps around 20,000 farmers to reach the market.
Vegrow provides a range of tech solutions such as grading, packaging, logistics and sales as a service to farmers, along with crop advisory, among other farming-related services. According to Jain, Vegrow processes more than 200 tonnes of fruits per day.
Vegrow has an annualised revenue run rate of $200 Mn. “We aim to grow sustainably and deliver a $5 Bn outcome within the next five years,” Jain added.
Over the last few months, both investors and the government have shown an increasing interest in agritech startups in the country.
“We’re thrilled to be doubling down on our investment in Vegrow as they scale and reshape the Agritech landscape in India. We’re privileged to have been the first to partner with Shobhit, Praneeth, Kiran & Mrudhukar on this journey and welcome Prosus to the partnership!” Commented Sudipto Sannigrahi, Principal, Matrix India.
“In the past year, Vegrow team has made significant headway in solving a core problem in the perishables supply chain – matching of supply & demand. This allows Vegrow to buy supply from a wide variety of sources, across grades and have a very strong handle on pricing. This ensures a very high Supply-side NPS. Fruit farmers across their footprint are keen to work with Vegrow. This has allowed Vegrow to build a strong supply side moat and grow over 15x in last 12 months. Super excited to double down on our partnership”, said Akarsh Shrivastava, Principal, Elevation Capital
Vegrow said that it digitally connects farmers across 400 production pockets in India and helps them align with market expectations and get better yield for their produce. Vegrow claims to process more than 200 tons of fruits daily.
