[Funding alert] Walmart and Flipkart Group make additional investment in agritech startup Ninjacart

Walmart and the Flipkart Group have made a fresh round of investment into agritech startup Ninjacart in continuation of its earlier funding done in December,2019. The value of this investment was not disclosed.

According to a statement, this second round of funding demonstrates Walmart and Flipkart Group’s continued commitment to invest in India’s agriculture & food supply chain and strong confidence in Ninjacart. It stated the follow-on investment further validates Ninjacart’s strong execution capabilities and its ability to innovate in the challenging fresh food supply chain space.

Ninjacart plans use the capital to expand to new markets and build new offerings and supply chains for emerging customer segments, while continuing to innovate on the supply chain to make it more efficient, reliable, and profitable.

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During the COVID-19 lockdown period, Ninjacart launched several initiatives such as apartment delivery, including a ‘Farm to fork’ pilot with Flipkart, customer delivery through food delivery apps, ‘Harvest the Farms’ initiative, etc. The startup also launched ‘Foodprint’, a 100 percent traceability platform for its products.

Flipkart Group CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy said, “The e-grocery market in India has seen tremendous growth over the past several months as people have increasingly taken to ordering groceries and fresh produce online.”

Flipkart has also made strong foray into the e-grocery space with the launch of platforms such as Supermart and Flipkart Quick, a hyperlocal service. Kalyan said,

“Our pilots and current business engagement with Ninjacart have been encouraging as we leverage technology to address changing consumer behaviour across the country.”

Founded in 2015, Ninjacart has the backing of other investors such as Tiger Global, Accel, Tanglin, Steadview, Nandan Nilekani, Qualcomm etc.

Ninjacart CEO & Co-founder Thirukumaran Nagarajan said,

“The fresh set of investments from Walmart and the Flipkart Group takes us one step closer to our vision of making food safe and accessible for the billion people and changing the way food reaches our plate. We are excited to have Walmart and the Flipkart Group show confidence in our capabilities around growth and profitability. We will continue to invest in areas that impact the lives of Customers and Farmers positively.”