Temasek invests $40m in India's StarAgri

Set up in 2006 by four former franchisees of rural lending products from Rajasthan, StarAgri is now one of the country's largest post-harvest agri-solutions providers, offering rural supply-chain infrastructure including logistics services, warehousing, labs and collateral finance.

The company currently has 700 warehouses across 16 states with over 1.5 million tonnes of warehousing capacity. Its clients include banks, commodity exchanges, international bulk commodity buyers such as Cargill, Bungee and food and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies like Britannia.

According to The Economic times, this latest round of funding will be used to further build out the company's infrastructure and improve its technology.

IDFC Alternatives previously invested INR1.5 billion in Star Agri in 2012, in exchange for a minority stake. It made the investment via its $650 million third fund.

Temasek has made a number of investments in agri-solutions businesses and assets in response to rising populations and middle-class growth across several emerging markets.

Last year the government-controlled Singaporean investor paid INR5.72 billion for a 19.9% stake in diversified agri-business Godrej Agrovet, while last month a unit of Temasek offered to buy Olam - among the world's top three coffee and rice traders - in a $2.1 billion deal.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Southeast Asia
• Industrials
• Agriculture
• Temasek Holdings
• India
• Southeast Asia
• Logistics
• Commodities