DeHaat, Agritech Firm, Purchases AgriCentral to Broaden its Farmer Network
Through an all-cash business transfer agreement, agritech startup DeHaat has acquired Olam Agri's farm consultancy portal AgriCentral. DeHaat hopes to strengthen its position as India's largest full-stack agritech platform, reach a wider audience within the farming community, and offer a wider range of digital services for farmers with this strategic purchase. With more than 10 million users, AgriCentral is an app-based platform for Indian farmers. It was established in 2018 and provides community engagement, health diagnostics, customised agricultural planning, and real-time crop prices. AgriCentral spearheads the shift to digital farming by utilising technology such as GPS, satellite images, big data, machine learning, and image analytics. Through a network of more than 15,000 DeHaat Centres, DeHaat has effectively built strong supply chain capabilities to provide 360-degree agricultural solutions to Indian farmers in more than 120,000 villages, according to cofounder and CEO Shashank Kumar.
DeHaat's attempts to reach millions of underserved farmers with its full-stack agri-value chain services will be aided by AgriCentral's affordable digital capabilities. In order to improve farmers' livelihoods, it will also allow DeHaat to implement a number of value-added services, like precision advice, mechanisation, insurance, and cattle advisory, Kumar continued.
Now, 12 Million Farmers are Connected with DeHaat
Through the agreement, DeHaat will now provide services to more than 12 million farmers across the country, with the goal of surpassing its 2024 farmer network target. DeHaat is a comprehensive agritech platform that offers farmers end-to-end agricultural services. It was founded in 2012 by Kumar and Amrendra Singh. This includes market linkages to sell their produce, financial access, individualised farm assistance, and high-quality agricultural inputs. Temasek and Prosus Ventures are among the investors that have contributed $221 million to the business, which was once valued at $700 million.
DeHaat Expanding its Network
With more than 15,000 DeHaat centres spread across 11 states, the company has grown its digital network to provide 2.7 million farmers with individualised crop advising and digital farmer services. In order to promote sustainable agriculture, DeHaat has established exclusive distribution agreements with over ten international bio-agri-input innovators and distributes over 3,000 agricultural inputs through these centres. Due in significant part to an increase in total expenses, the Gurugram-based startup's consolidated net loss increased by 3.76% to INR 1,133.1 Cr in the fiscal year 2023–24 (FY24) from INR 1,094.4 Cr the previous year. It was on course to reach breakeven by the final quarter of the current fiscal year (Q4 FY25); nevertheless, it reduced its operational losses by 42% YoY in FY24.
With the use of alliances with more than 1,000 agricultural organisations, such as input producers, produce purchasers, warehouse managers, and financial institutions, the platform's supply chain capabilities extend throughout 120,000 communities.
Nitin Konde
