HARYANA, 2 February 2022: Bijak, a B2B trading platform for agricultural products, raised USD 19.37 million as part of its Series B funding round led by Bertelsmann, according to a regulatory filing.
The company's filing with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) shows existing investors Omidyar Network India, RTP Global Advisors, Better Capital, and Sequoia Capital India's scale-up program Surge Ventures also participated in the funding round.
The company intends to use the funds for its growing business, long-term capital requirements, for expansion plans, and general corporate purposes.
As a part of the transaction, Bijak allotted 393 equity shares to the investors, at an issue price INR 6,124.67 each, and 2,350 Series B compulsorily convertible cumulative preference shares (CCCPS) at an issue price of INR 6,12,466.81 each, the filing shows.
A total of USD 13.15m was invested alone by Bertelsmann, with Omidyar investing USD 3m and RTP Global Advisors investing USD 2m. According to VCCircle estimates, Bijak, operated by Krishiacharya Technologies Pvt Ltd, is valued at USD 163m in the current round.
In May 2019, Nukul Upadhyaye, Mahesh Jakhotia, Jitender Bedwal, Daya Rai and Nikhil Tripathi launched Bijak as a B2B agricultural trade platform, which allows traders, wholesalers and processors to record their transactions.
The platform aims to bridge the information gap and lack of accountability in the agricultural commodities trade. Bijak provides users a platform with optimised logistics solutions and claims that the platform provides buyers and sellers better prices, increased working capital.
In April 2020, Bijak raised USD 12m through a Series A funding round led by RTP Global Advisors.
Over the last two years, many agritech startups raised funds aggressively. Earlier this year agritech startup BigHaat Agro Pvt Ltd had raised INR 100 crore (USD 13.5 million) as a part of its Series B funding round last week led by JM Financial Private Equity’s second fund.
Among large deals, DeHaat, a platform providing end-to-end agriculture services including agricultural input, crop advisory, market linkage platform and financial services to farmers, had raised USD 115m in October from Belgium-based investment firm Sofina and Lightrock India.
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