Indian grain commerce startup Arya.ag has raised $60 Mn Series C funding in a mix of equity and debt financing led by Asia Impact SA, Lightrock India and Quona Capital. It also has received debt financing from the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) among others.

With this round, the agritech startup’s post-money valuation stands at $300 Mn.

Arya.ag was part of JM Baxi Group till 2013. However, it was taken over by its present founders including Chattanathan Devarajan, Prasanna Rao and Anand Chandra in 2013.

Arya.ag connects sellers and buyers of agriproduce, providing complete assurance on quantity, quality and payments. The platform eliminates distress sales of farmers’ produce by enabling farmgate storage and seamless finance options, offering farmers the freedom of when and whom to sell to. Arya intends to use the funding to capture 20%+ of the $100 Bn grain commerce market.

The founders of Arya — Chattanathan Devarajan, Prasanna Rao and Anand Chandra have decades of experience in agri-business and agri-finance. With an established product-market fit with differentiated efficiencies, proven scale, and profitability managing over 3 Mn metric tons across 21 states, the agritech startup has created a strong foundation while building viable options for enhancing the market power of smallholders and their organisations. 

With visibility into over 10,000 commodity storage points across the country, Arya assures year-round supply to SME and corporate buyers with embedded financing options.

Arya.ag eliminates the trust deficit in the grain commerce value chain through its integrated PAN India platform that delivers value to all stakeholders by enabling access to high-quality produce, products, and services. 

Speaking about the funding, Chattanathan Devarajan, Arya’s cofounder, said, “We have visibility on grains worth over  $2 Bn on the Arya platform, and this number is growing rapidly as we gather data from warehouses around the country.”

According to Devarajan, this funding round will help the startup gain market share for its core offerings and add more services to consolidate its position as India’s most trusted platform in agriculture. 

“We believe that these partnerships, old and new, are an endorsement of Arya’s strength to drive penetration and lead transformation within the sector,” he added.

“Through the pandemic, we have seen Arya transform agri-commerce across India,” said Matteo Pusineri, director of Asia Impact SA. 

“Arya will help accomplish Asia Impact’s vision to integrate rural under-served farming communities across Asia to markets at scale. We are confident that Arya, under the leadership of Prasanna Rao, Anand Chandra and Chattanathan Devarajan, will greatly contribute to a unique ecosystem supporting the sustainable growth story of rural India,” said Pusineri.

According to an Inc42 analysis, between 2014 and 18th January 2022, Indian agritech startups have raised close to $1.4 Bn in funding across 189 deals. 

Last week we saw fresh produce distribution startup WayCool raising $117 Mn in a Series D funding round, beating DeHaat’s $115 Mn Series D round to record India’s biggest agritech funding round so far.

Before this, Bengaluru-based agritech startup Ninjacart raised $145 Mn from Walmart-backed Flipkart. The round reportedly valued the Tiger Global-backed startup between $700 Mn and $800 Mn.