Tiger Global invests $89m in India's Ninjacart
Tiger Global Management has invested INR6.25 billion ($89.1 million) for a 26% stake in Indian agriculture industry sales platform Ninjacart.
The investment values Ninjacart at around $320 million, according to filings with the Registrar of Companies cited by multiple Indian media outlets. It follows a INR2.5 billion funding round in December from a group of investors including Accel Partners, Qualcomm Ventures, Syngenta Ventures, Neoplux, and HR Capital.
Ninjacart was founded in 2015 as a hyperlocal grocery delivery company, but later shifted to a B2B model, connecting vegetable and fruit farmers directly with merchants, helping farmers improve their economics and allowing retailers to source directly from growers at competitive prices. The company also claims its model benefits consumers through increasing traceability of produce and by reducing the number of hands through which it passes and thus the opportunities for contamination.
Currently Ninjacart operates in seven cities, with 12,000 farmer clients, offering 12-hour delivery from farm to store. It is investing in supply chain infrastructure improvements with an eye to growing its footprint to more than 200 cities.
Agricultural technology is considered a promising industry in India thanks to a massive population of small farmers – more than 58% of the country’s population depended on agriculture for their livelihood in 2018 – and widespread penetration of mobile phones among this community.
The most attractive start-ups for investors in recent years are considered those that focus on specific pain points faced by farmers rather than trying to capture a broad user base at the beginning. For example, Omnivore Partners-backed Eruvaka develops real-time sensors for fish farms to replace slow laboratory tests, while AgroStar provides a social network for farmers to seek advice from their peers, along with a platform for buying agricultural inputs such as seeds and tools.
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