Mumbai-based agri-tech startup Farmlink has raised $3 million from Switzerland-headquartered Pioneering Ventures and agrochemical firm Syngenta, a global Swiss agribusiness that produces agrochemicals and seeds. This is company’s first institutional round of funding. In 2014, Farmlink was incubated by Pioneering Ventures.
With the newly acquired funding, Farmlink is planning to expand its network of collection and service centers across India. The startup will also spend the newly acquired financing in enhancing its technological and analytical capabilities to improve the supply chain from farm to shelf.
Currently, the startup operates as an end to end supplier of fresh products like fruits and vegetables. It procures goods directly from farmer group organizations through a network of collection and service centres and then delivering them to a number of businesses like retail stores, restaurant chains, industrial processors and e-commerce food platforms. Apart from this, with Farmlink, farmers also get provided with secured income based on long-term off-take agreements. Farmlink also offers an all-around support to improve the productivity and quality of their crops. Star Bazaar, Vista Processed Foods which services McDonald’s are among some of its major clients.
Farmlink currently has 4 distribution cum collection centres across Maharashtra, Telangana and Karnataka. It procures supplies from around 700 farmers and is aiming to increase the number to 3000 soon. With the newly acquired capital, the startup is planning to expand its geographical reach in South and North India.
The startup has also introduced a new B2B tracing tool called FarmTrace which will help clients to track the produce from farm-to-shelf. They are expecting to go live with FarmTrace by the end of March 2018 and are hoping that this move will allow multi-national retailers and consumers share transparent insights into when, where, and how the food was grown.
With an aim to increase the number of distribution centers and pool of farmers by the end of this year, it is planning an aggressive growth of 4x-5x in revenues for Financial Year 19.