[Funding alert] Agritech startup Vegrow raises $2.5M led by Matrix Partners India, Ankur Capital

Vegrow, a Bengaluru-based agritech startup focussed on aggregating small farms, on Monday announced it has raised $2.5 million in seed funding from Matrix Partners India and Ankur Capital. 

The round also saw participation from Better Capital, Titan Capital, as well as angel investors including Sanjiv Rangrass – CEO of ITC Ltd Agri Business Division, Rohit MA – Founder of Cloud 9, Ramakant Sharma – Founder of Livsapce and Amit Lakhotia – Founder of Park+.

Tarun Davda, Managing Director, Matrix India, said, 

“Agriculture is one of India’s largest industries, and the lack of organisation in the space clearly outlines the vast opportunity available. Vegrow’s model of aggregating fragmented farms to help unlock economies of scale with technology-led interventions significantly increases the earning potential of their partner farmers.”

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Founded by four IITians Praneeth Kumar, Shobhit Jain, Mrudhukar Batchu, and Kiran Naik, Vegrow is building an asset-light farm by partnering with small farms on a profit-sharing model. The startup said it increases the net earnings of partner farmers by leveraging technology across different stages of the farming cycle – it helps in crop planning, gives them access to quality inputs, monitors their adherence to practices, and ultimately sells their harvest to the right set of buyers.

Shobhit Jain, Co-founder, Vegrowadded, 

“From the humble beginning of farming ourselves, we now see a vision of becoming the world's largest farmer. We are partnering with farmers and building value chains for identified commodities. We are investing in farm tech and supply chain tech to help us realise a higher value for our farmers, all of this is rallied around a single point agenda which is to build and serve India’s largest farmer community.”

Both Praneeth and Shobhit started their professional career at the agri business division of ITC, while Mrudhukar and Kiran have had practical experience of farming.

Ritu Verma, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Ankur Capital, shared,

"We are excited to kick off our second fund by partnering with Vegrow. We have spent a lot of time in the agritech sector and most solutions do not get to the heart of the challenge - managing demand led production across fragmented farms. The team's depth of understanding the market, coupled with their approach to use technology to drive the scale is what sets them apart.”