Agritech startup DeHaat aims to be EBIDTA positive in FY25

DeHaat, one of the leading full-stack agritech platform, has clocked a 55% annual growth in revenue to Rs 1,997 crore in the last fiscal on the back of higher sales of agricultural products.

Dehaat, which is based out of Patna in Bihar and Gurugram in Haryana, registered a revenue of Rs 1,287 crore in the 2022-23 fiscal year.

The startup offers end-to-end agricultural services to farmers.

"Our revenue has risen 55% last fiscal to nearly Rs 2,000 crore. More than 98% of revenue came from the sale of agricultural products," DeHaat CEO Shashank Kumar told PTI in an interview.

Revenue from the sale of agricultural products rose 54% to Rs 1,965 crore last fiscal, from Rs 1,274 crore in FY22.

"Our burn at EBITDA (earning before interest, depreciation, tax and amortisation) level was 15% last fiscal and this will come down to 5% in the current fiscal, as margins have improved. We will become EBITDA positive in the 2024-25 fiscal," Kumar said.

He highlighted that the company has doubled its presence across focus geographies from 53 hubs in FY22 to 103 in FY23.

"We are proud to have sustained growth momentum in adding more than a million farmers to our platform, setting up over 5,000 new DeHaat Centers, and successfully establishing newer input product categories and business verticals, including B2B exports and DeHaat Honest Farms," Kumar said.

The CEO said the next big goal for the company is to achieve EBITDA-level profitability.

DeHaat saw a 60% increase in operating expenses to Rs 2,368 crore in FY23, with purchases of traded commodities accounting for 78% of total expenses.

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As a result, the company expanded its footprint across 11 states last fiscal.

"The increased outreach enabled DeHaat to improve its gross margin, allowing the company to maintain its percentage EBITDA burn at the same level as in FY22," Kumar said.

DeHaat is a technology-based platform offering full-stack agricultural services to farmers, including the distribution of high-quality agricultural inputs, customised farm advisory, access to financial services, and market linkages for selling their produce.

At present, DeHaat has built a last-mile supply chain in more than 110,000 villages across 150+ districts of India through its exclusive digitised network of 12,000+ micro-entrepreneurs called 'DeHaat Centers'.

DeHaat currently serves more than 20 lakh farmers located across 11 states including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, and Haryana with its full-stack agri value chain offerings.

As a platform, it has onboarded 2,000+ agri-business institutions including input manufacturers, FMCG players, banks, insurance partners and bulk output exporters, offering them direct access to farmers.