Indian Agritech Startup Kamatan Secures INR 30 Cr Financing

New Delhi-based Agri-logistics startup Kamatan Farm Tech has secured INR 30 Cr in an equity fund and debt financing from Chennai-based Samunnati Agro Solutions. The agri-focussed financing company led round witnessed the presence of existing sponsor Elevar Equity.

Kamatan is a result of merging the two agritech startups Sabziwala and LivLush, which are both backed by impact VC fund Elevar Equity. The rationale to create a new entity was to merge the domains of farmer connect and supply-chain technology to ensure better profit for farmers. It has also developed technology to reduce the wastage of food.

Kamatan, led by the former Indian Administrative Services officer Pravesh Sharma, helps these FPOs in procuring, storing, quality control and logistics. Separately, it also serves large production with supply, bulk volumes, and factory gate delivery. The startup plans to address challenges in the Agri supply chain sectors.

Kamatan also offers some other services such as financial linkages, technology solutions for production, storage, and quality management for the farmers. The clients include food processors, hotels, restaurants, and cafes, grocery startups with popular resorts like Taj Hotels, as well as customer-facing startups like Freshmenu, Swiggy, BigBasket, Grofers, and Chai Point.

According to Rohan Patnaik, the chief operating officer at Kamatan, the firm is currently planning to raise additional capital with Samunnati Agro.

The Samunnati Agro Solutions, which is mainly focussed on Agri supply chains, aims to enhance the players across the value chain, by providing financial intermediation, market linkages, and advisory services. Its services include loans to small and marginal farmers and capital loans to community-based organizations and finance to agri-focussed small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

According to the reports, in India, there are more than 450 startups in the agritech space. By the end of June 2019, India’s agritech sector has received more than $248 million investment and marking a growth of 300%. The total funding in agritech startups in India is increased from $46.1 M in 2017 to $66.6 M in 2018. Some of the leading agritech startups sponsors include Dehaat, Farmart, and Ninjakart.

Fasal Agritech startup raised funding of $1.6 million by Omnivore and Wavemaker Partners in October 2019. The company plans to build AI capabilities for horticulture in the future.