Ninjacart Raises Rs.250 Crores from Accel US, Syngenta Ventures

Ninjacart, India’s leading Agri-tech platform that connects farmers to retailers, closed its Rs. 250 crores series B funding round from Accel US, Syngenta Ventures (Switzerland / USA), Neoplux (South Korea), Jo Hirao (Founder of ZIGExN), HR Capital (Russia) and Trifecta Capital. All existing investors Accel India, Nandan Nilekani, Mistletoe and Qualcomm Ventures also participated in this round, signaling a strong trust in Ninjacart’s execution and pioneering capabilities. The RainMaker Group acted as the sole advisor to Ninjacart for the series B funding round.

This funding will be used to expand to new geographies, strengthen the product and technology team and invest in bettering the supply chain infrastructure. Ninjacart aims to expand to 10+ cities, open 200+ distribution centres across India and scale hiring and onboarding talent in the near future.

Commenting on the announcement Thirukumaran Nagarajan, CEO and Co-founder of Ninjacart said, “This is a huge validation of Ninjacart’s business model, our relentless focus on solving India’s Agri-marketing problem and the team’s execution capabilities. We are thrilled to have a new set of global investors who can amplify our vision. Our focus will be on expanding to new markets and continue to innovate on behalf of our farmers and customers - and this will come from continued investments in talent, technology and supply chain infrastructure”

Shubhang Shankar from Syngenta Ventures commented, “At Syngenta we are committed to supporting innovation that improves the livelihood and economic security of farmers across the globe. We have been very impressed by Ninjacart’s success in developing a solution that provides improved market access to Indian farmers while at the same time delivering high quality practices across the farm to fork supply chain. We look forward to supporting Ninjacart on this journey, ultimately delivering benefits to numerous farmers and consumers throughout the country”

Subrata Mitra, Partner at Accel India said, “Ninjacart has been attempting to alleviate major issues in India’s Fruit & Veggies supply chain over the past several years! The team has managed to get into a clear leadership position in that ecosystem, especially around South Indian cities. With the current round of financing we expect them to continue to scale rapidly, enter new cities, and enable direct relationships with farmers & shop owners across even more categories. We continue to be strong supporters of Ninjacart!”

Launched in 2015, Ninjacart is a Bengaluru based startup founded by Thirukumaran Nagarajan, Kartheeswaran K K, Ashutosh Vikram, Sharath Loganathan and Vasudevan Chinnathambi. Ninjacart leverages its innovative technology to solve one of the toughest agricultural supply chain problems and enable retailers and merchants to source fresh produce directly from the farmers at competitive prices. Changing the way India consumes food, Ninjacart aims to increase the farmers’ incomes, reduce food wastage, introduce competitive prices for retailers and ensure quality food for all consumers.

Ninjacart currently operates in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai with a team of 750+ passionate individuals. It has a sourcing network of 3000+ farmers across south India and moves fresh produce from farm to 4000+ retailers in less than 12 hours on a daily basis.

With this funding round, Ninjacart has now raised a total of Rs. 310 crores so far. Ninjacart has also been identified as top 11 Indian startups to enable $50 billion online commerce by Google, Bain and Omidiyar and featured amongst the 42 most innovative Indian startups by Inc 42.