FarmLink raises INR 20 crore seed funding from Pioneering Ventures and Syngenta

Mumbai: FarmLink, a fruit and vegetable (F&V) supply chain company, has raised seed stage funding of INR 20 crores (USD 3 million) from Pioneering Ventures and Syngenta. The agri-tech company plans to utilize this capital to expand its geographical reach and strengthen its technology and analytics capabilities in the supply chain.
The company provides their farmers with secured income based on long term off-take agreements and all-round support to improve productivity and quality. FarmLink procures fruits and vegetables directly from their farmers through a network of collection and service centers with world-class infrastructure and delivers the produce to industrial scale off-takers such as big retail stores, Hotel-Restaurant-Cafe (HORECA) chains, industrial processors and emerging e-commerce food platforms. The company offers various value add processing services and a full assortment of ‘ready-to-retail’, customer-friendly products. It is also in the final stages of implementing ‘FarmTrace’, a proprietary B2C consumer traceability App, that among other functionalities, can track the product from farm to shelf allowing customers and consumers to get transparent insight into when, where, and how the food was grown.
By restructuring the supply chain, the company brings efficiency in delivery from farm to fork which results in minimum wastage of the produce and ensures better pricing for the farmers.
FarmLink was founded in 2014 by Pioneering Ventures, an incubator and accelerator of ventures within the Indian agriculture and food supply chain space. The incubator intends to generate sustainable financial returns while contributing to the development of rural India, thereby ultimately improving the lives of hundreds of thousands of farmers in the country.
“India’s agriculture is facing serious challenges such as low yield and enormous wastage across the value chain. FarmLink attempts to address these challenges by fundamentally transforming and modernizing critical stages of the entire supply chain. We are excited to partner with the company on this journey”, said Akshaya Kamath, Director – Pioneering Ventures India.
Currently, FarmLink procures more than 20 tons of F&V per day through its multiple collection centers across Karnataka, Telangana and Maharashtra. The produce is supplied to company’s primary markets in Mumbai and Bangalore where it has off-take agreements with large multi-national and retail franchises, to name a few – Star Bazaar and Vista Processed Foods.
“We aim to transform the way fresh produce is grown and distributed in the India by introducing global best practices. In parallel, we empower the farmers by providing knowledge & extension services such agriculture credit, crop insurance and warehousing. We ensure regular and secured income for the farmers with long-term off-take agreements”, said Sreeram Chellappa, COO at FarmLink.
FarmLink’s focus is to develop India’s underserved regions. It is associated with more than 700 farmers to improve the quality and quantity of their produce. The company intends to reduce agri wastage, by streamlining the value chain, to less than 5 percent in comparison to the country’s average of 30 percent. Majority of this saving translates into increased farmers’ earnings.