AgroStar Secured $70 Million in its Series D Financing Round

 

AgroStar Startup Funding News

The omnichannel agricultural market for advisory services and trade AgroStar has secured $70 million in its Series D financing round led by Evolvence, Schroders Capital, Hero Enterprise, and CDC.

The new round came after 33 months for AgroStar. Bertelsmann India had led a $27 million Series C round within the Pune-based company in March of 2019. The new money will be used to expand business and product offerings and hire and enhance multichannel strategies, stated the company in the press release.

It was launched in 2013 as a missed-call knowledge program for agriculturalists. AgroStar has evolved into an all-stack platform for farmers and offers farm advisory services and agri inputs using a combination of offline and online channels. AgroStar has more than 1,000 offline touchpoints in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, as well as other regions.

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AgroStar plans to install at least 5,000 touchpoints like this over the coming years. According to its website, its Android-only application has more than 5 million downloads, where farmers share their knowledge and can purchase authentic agricultural inputs. The company's offerings have been limited to content and commerce up to the present time, but it's expected to start lending shortly.

Although the company has yet to announce financial results for FY21, its operating earnings jumped by 80% to 153.69 million in FY20, which was just 85.56 crore for FY19. In terms of revenues, the losses increased by 78% to 93.81 million in FY20, up from the 52.82 million in its previous budget period (FY19).

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It is among the largest rounds of funding for Agritech startups in India. The month of October was when Patna, along with Gurugram-based DeHaat, were able to secure 115 million in the Series D round, which was the largest amount ever raised by an Indian agricultural tech startup in one time.

Tiger Global, which Ninjacart backs, also received a sum of $90m during its series C round. However, Waycool has launched an additional round and is expected to raise more existing and new investors. Entrackr reported exclusive news of this on the 13th of October. AgroStar is competing with Unnati, Gramophone, DeHaat and other companies. Unnati also has raised the sum of $8.5 million from Incofin Investment Management, NabVentures and Orios.

Zepto on Its Way to Raise $250 Million

Zepto Startup Funding News

Zepto, a 10-minute delivery service for groceries, Zepto has attracted a lot of attention from both investors. While customers are impressed by its speedy delivery service, huge American tech investors are optimistic about the company's prospects for the future.

Zepto is a Mumbai-based company that has plans to raise over $250 million in a fresh round, as per three sources who are aware of the deal.

One anonymous person familiar with the details of the deal told us that Zepto had already committed about $125 million, half of the round size is in conversation to raise another $125 million from existing and new investors.

Entrackr has complete information on 11 November that Zepto is seeking to raise over 100 million dollars in a new capital round, with a valuation in the range of 500 million.

According to the sources, the talks are past the early stage, as the conditions of the agreement are being worked out. With the addition of funds, the value is expected to rise. "The company will be valued at about $1 billion (post-money) after this round," according to a person who also asked to remain anonymous.

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Entrackr couldn't identify the names of investors who could be part of the round. Y Combinator, Glade Brook Capital, Nexus, Global Founders Capital are its current supporters. Zepto recently raised $60 million with a value of $250 million. The queries addressed at Zepto or Y Combinator didn't elicit immediate responses.

Zepto will become one of the fastest startups to reach unicorn status if the deal is approved. The marketplace roll-up system Mensa Brands recently became a unicorn within six months from its beginning. Professional network platform Apna also achieved the feat within 21 months.

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Zepto allows online grocery orders and can deliver the groceries within 10 minutes to some locations in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Delhi (NCR). According to the company's website, the service will soon be available in Kolkata along with Pune.

CRED is Looking to Acquire Happay

Cred Startup Acquisition News

Kunal Shah's CRED appears to be aggressively buying businesses -- a tactic it has stayed away from during 2 years following the company's inception. CRED is currently at the point of purchasing Happay, the expense management firm.

Both companies were in discussions over the last couple of months and the conditions of the deal are now in place, according to two sources familiar with specifics of the transaction.

Happay is the second acquisition for CRED following HipBar which was an alcohol delivery business it acquired in October. CRED could also be in talks to buy Times Internet's Dineout as well as Rainmatter's debt investing platform WintWealth. But the talks are still in their early stages and the Bengaluru-based firm is still waiting to confirm the talks.

In the case of Happay it offers companies with expense management to manage tax and travel advantages for employees. Happay offers customized solutions for large corporations that have multiple branches as well as logistic companies with a surface.

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The company, which has been in operation for a decade, also allows large companies to issue credit and prepaid cards as well as manage expenses for employees between 800 and 900k. They are employed by 6,000 businesses which includes 100 large companies.

At the time of writing, Happay has raised $22-25 million through various financing rounds. Based on TechCircle's estimates the company was valued at 60 million during its Series B funding round of the year 2019. If CRED buys Happay within the range above this will result in an attractive exit for Happay's shareholders.

Although Happay is still waiting to file its annual financial statements for FY21, its operating revenues grew by 49% to 37.55 crore in FY20 , up from the 25.12 crore during FY19. The company's losses in FY20 increased 95% to 49.20 crore.

Also read: Setu Records Rs 3 Cr Revenue in Fy21 Even as Losses Climb to Rs 19 Cr

This year has been an incredible one for CRED in terms of the amount of money that was raised. CRED raked in $466 million in 2021 , and will soon become a part of Razorpay and Meesho which are in talks to secure new rounds that have valuations exceeding $5 billion. Entrackr has exclusive news about CRED's upcoming round that would be worth the company's three-year-old status at more than $5.5 billion.