Impact investors commit $60m to India agtech platform
Quona Capital, Lightrock India, and Asia Impact SA have co-led a USD 60m Series C round for Indian agriculture technology platform Arya.
The round included USD 14m in debt from investors including the US Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and Switzerland-based impact investor ResponsAbility. It gives the company a post-money valuation of USD 300m.
Arya describes itself as India’s largest end-to-end grain commerce platform. Its core services involve helping independent farmers access larger markets with a network of around 10,000 warehouses, as well as a non-bank lending service. Prasanna Rao, co-founder and CEO of Arya, said he believes the future of post-harvest agtech services is in “storage-cum-financing solutions.”
The company raised USD 21m Series B led by Quona in late 2020 with support from Lightrock and Omnivore Partners. Lightrock, formerly LGT Lightstone Aspada, has been an investor since 2016, according to AVCJ Research. Arya is currently in talks to raise a further USD 100m, according to The Economic Times.
“Arya’s unparalleled reach across rural India, coupled with its tech-driven integrated service model, has made it one of the fastest-growing agri-commerce platforms in India,” Varun Malhotra, a partner at Quona, said in a statement. “Arya is successfully bridging the trust gap in post-harvest agri transactions through complete transparency and assurance on quality, quantity, and payments.”
Grains have proven an active agtech micro-niche. Last year, a VC unit of Fujitsu backed the world’s first digital global rice trading platform with a view to bringing blockchain to the industry. Meanwhile, Roc Partners has acquired grain handling company Emerald Grain from Sumitomo Corp, and Artesian Venture Partners has launched a fund called GrainInnovate dedicated to improving grain genetics, cultivation, and storage.
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