B2B Agritech startup Waycool Foods has raised whooping $35 Mn in series C funding round led by venture capital firm Lightbox. This is the biggest funding round raised by Chennai based startup, which last year reportedly raised nearly Rs 120 crore in equity and debt financing round.
Apart from Lightbox, Dutch development finance institution FMO and existing backer LGT Lightstone Aspada also participated in the series C round.
Barely 24 hours ago, another agritech startup Leap India had also raised funds from investors. This startup is founded and headed by former Formula 1 driver Narain Karthikeyan.
Like scores of agritech startup today, Waycool also looks to streamline the highly complicated supply chain that continues to plague the agriculture sector eve today. With wide presence in southern India, the company directly sources agriculture products like fruits, vegetables, pulses, rice and other products from nearly 40,000 farmers.
These products are then directly transported to its nearly 8,000 clients including hotels, bakeries and retail chains. Taj Group Hotels, Elior and Sodexo are among its high profile clients.
Waycool Foods has had an adventurous journey since its incorporation in 2015. Founded by Karthik Jayaraman and Sanjay Dasari, the company was earlier known as SunnyBee and back then was primarily focused on B2C space.
However, both co-founders later realized that the real potential for growth was in the B2B space and hence decided to pivot their business model. The company officially pivoted their business in 2017, when it also reportedly raised $2.7 Mn from Aspada investment.
Since the pivot, Waycool Foods claimed in a report published in Yourstory.com that its top line has grown by 18x. The company’s robust balance sheet also helped in acquiring significant stake in Benani Foods.
Although investors are not aggressively chasing agritech startups, the sector has seen some decent fund raising rounds during the last few years. Last year, big names like Flipkart and Walmart pumped undisclosed amount of funding in agritech startup Ninjacart.