[Funding alert] Agritech startup Gramophone raises Rs 25 Cr led by Siana Capital

Indore-based agriculture technology startup Gramophoneon Tuesday announced that it has raised Rs 25 crore ($3.4 million) in funding led by Siana Capital, a deep tech investor.

Existing investors Info Edge, Asha Impact, and Better Capital have also participated in this round. This brings the total capital raised by Gramophone till date to Rs 55 crore.

"We have seen strong farmer adoption with a Y-o-Y 15-20 percent increase in the wallet share of the customers. We will invest in customer acquisition and building the full-stack platform for the farmers to provide a holistic solution for ‘maximising farmer’s income’ by enhancing expertise around Agronomic Intelligence for Input business and building capabilities to provide market linkages and access to credit to the farmers,” said Tauseef Khan, Co-founder and CEO, Gramophone.

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[Funding alert] Agritech startup Gramophone raises Rs 24 Cr in Series A from Info Edge, Asha Impact and Better Capital

Founded in 2016 by IIT and IIM Ahmedabad graduates Tauseef Ahmad Khan, Nishant Vats Mahatre, Harshit Gupta, and Ashish Rajan Singh, Gramophone claims to be building an intelligent farming platform, which has enabled more than 550,000 Indian farmers to increase their income based on improved farming practices. The platform acts as a doctor and a pharmacy to the farmers. The farmers get access to a wide range of inputs and implements, including seeds, fertilisers, nutrients, pesticides, and farming equipment.

According to the startup, farmers gain up to 20 percent cost benefit on Gramophone’s inputs marketplace and improve yields up to 40 percent through its advisory.

"The Gramophone team has a deep understanding of the agricultural supply chain. It has emerged as the leading agritech player that caters to a farmer’s end-to-end needs by providing the right agronomic intelligence, quality inputs and transparent market linkages,” added Kitty Agarwal, Partner at Info Edge Ventures.

Info Edge Ventures, a Rs 750 crore early-stage venture capital fund backed by Info Edge, recently received a commitment of Rs 375 crore from Temasek, a global investment company headquartered in Singapore. The fund, which was launched in January 2020, focuses on investments in early-stage technology startups in India.

According to Aditi Gupta, Principal - Investments from Asha Impact, "We’re excited to double down on our investment in Gramophone, and proud of the team’s ability to deliver 100 percent plus growth this year, supporting smallholding farmers through a tough Kharif cycle amidst the nationwide lockdown.”