Flipkart, Walmart invest $145m in India's Ninjacart
Walmart and Flipkart, its Indian e-commerce platform, have doubled down on local fresh produce delivery company Ninjacart with a 145 million investment.
It is being called the largest ever agriculture technology deal in India. Walmart and Flipkart invested a reported $30 million investment in the company in October 2020. The US retail giant – which acquired a majority stake in Flipkart in 2018 at a valuation of $24 billion and led a $1.2 billion follow-on round last year – first backed Ninjacart in late 2019.
Previous investors in Ninjacart include Tiger Global Management, Accel Partners, HR Capital, NEoplux Capital, Qualcomm Ventures, Frifecta Capital, Mistletoe, Steadview Capital, Tanglin Venture Partners, NPTK Emerging Asia Fund, and NRJN Family Trust. Syngenta Group Ventures, which first invested in late 2018, acquired an additional 5.2% stake for about $9.6 million in May this year.
Ninjacart has helped more than 100,000 farmers across 150 villages connect with merchants since its inception in 2015. The company claims its supply chain platform solves some of the industry's toughest problems around distribution inefficiency and price risk, improving revenues for growers.
During the COVID-19 lockdowns, Ninjacart launched customer-facing food ordering apps, a direct-to-apartment delivery service, and a traceability platform to improve food safety. Earlier this year, it began working with the Union Ministry of Agriculture & Farmer Welfare to strengthen market linkages and promote best practices in the farming sector.
Flipkart offers grocery in 1,800 cities and towns and aims to take its footprint to 2,000 more towns by mid-next year. Fresh fruits and vegetables will be an integral part of the expansion, with the company investing in technology capabilities to ensure stringent quality checks. Flipkart has established a partnership with local trade group Farmer Producer Organizations.
“The funds will enable us to dream beyond organizing the farmer-to-retailer ecosystem to a much larger goal of organizing the complete agri ecosystem and enabling transparent commerce,” Thirukumaran Nagarajan, co-founder and CEO of Ninjacart, said in a statement.
“India is at a cusp of formalizing the agriculture industry, with the advent to better road connectivity, GST, seamless payments, digital infrastructure, etc. This opens up a tremendous opportunity to organize our agri ecosystem landscape like never before.”
More on South Asia
Latest News
Asian GPs slow implementation of ESG policies - survey
Asia-based private equity firms are assigning more dedicated resources to environment, social, and governance (ESG) programmes, but policy changes have slowed in the past 12 months, in part due to concerns raised internally and by LPs, according to a...
Singapore fintech start-up LXA gets $10m seed round
New Enterprise Associates (NEA) has led a USD 10m seed round for Singapore’s LXA, a financial technology start-up launched by a former Asia senior executive at The Blackstone Group.
India's InCred announces $60m round, claims unicorn status
Indian non-bank lender InCred Financial Services said it has received INR 5bn (USD 60m) at a valuation of at least USD 1bn from unnamed investors including “a global private equity fund.”
Insight leads $50m round for Australia's Roller
Insight Partners has led a USD 50m round for Australia’s Roller, a venue management software provider specializing in family fun parks.