Gurugram-based B2B agritech startup Bijak has raised around ₹18 crores ($2.5 million) in seed funding from Omnivore and Omidyar Network India, Sequoia Capital India’s accelerator programme Surge, as reported by Inc42. With the latest investment, Surge and Omidyar Network make their first investment in an agritech startup.
The funds raised will be used to expand the business by leveraging new technology and hiring fresh talent.
Nukul Upadhye, Co-Founder, Bijak, said, “Focused on addressing challenges such as accountability and trust in the B2B agri commodity trade, we are targeting a $200B market in India which has almost 5M+ middlemen.”
Bijak was founded by Nukul Upadhye, Mahesh Jakhotia, Jitender Bedwal, Daya Rai and Nikhil Tripathi in 2019. It provides a B2B platform for agricultural commodities enabling buyers and sellers to fetch better prices, increased working capital and optimised logistics.
Catering to the people in tier 2 and tier 3 cities in agricultural states like Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the platform is also available in regional languages.
Omnivore’s managing partner, Mark Kahn said, “Bijak is transforming the agricultural trading ecosystem across India by partnering with buyers, sellers, and middlemen to improve transparency and reduce everyone’s cost of capital. Over time, this will also become hugely beneficial to Indian farmers.”
Other Indian agritech startups enabling the farmers in the country include NinjaCart, Crofarm, Agrostar, Aibono, Fasal, among many others.
Earlier this year, NinjaCart raised $50 million from Walmart. Furthermore, Ecozen Solutions bagged $6 million in series A funding.