Indian Agrifoodtech Raised $2.4 Bn From 133 Deals: Report

In 2022, Indian agrifoodtech raised USD 2.4 billion across 133 deals. The most active categories by number of deals were agribusiness marketplace and fintech and eGrocery. 

Aside from Swiggy’s late stage USD 700 million late-stage funding round, online restaurants and meal marketplaces did not see much. 

India AgriFoodTech Investment report 2023 said  “The global economic slowdown and relentless onslaught of climate change have had a telling impact  on investment trends. While capital flows have become cautious with heightened scrutiny on various performance metrics, the past decade, especially the pandemic years, proved the importance of tech innovation to safeguard food security.” 

The report further said India was not immune to the global slowdown and pullback in investment in 2022 but as with the global stage, there were bright spots including an increase in upstream  investment. The macroeconomic headwinds had a bigger impact on downstream, consumer-facing categories, where funding declined significantly. 

The report highlighted that with the exception of eGrocery, downstream and midstream categories saw a decrease in investments and deal sizes. Upstream categories had a relatively better year with increased deal sizes in Agribusiness marketplace and Fintech, Farm Robotics and miscellaneous spaces including carbon credits creation and farmer centric social media platform. 

On the amount raised the report said that Agribusiness Marketplaces and Fintech startups raised USD 428 million in 2022, a marked increase from 2021. The category also emerged as the most active category by number of deals, closing 32 over the year. full-stack agricultural platform DeHaat took the lead raising USD 106 million across two rounds.In 2022, as technology adoption spread in the ecosystem, startups began solving legacy challenges, chief among them being access to affordable formal finance. 

Fintechs and neo-banks such as Ayekartand Jai Kisan are tailoring products for various stakeholders to fortify livelihoods and supply chains.