ONO, an agritech startup, has raised INR 11 Cr ($1.3 Mn) as a part of its seed funding round led by Aeravti Ventures, with participation from Indigram Labs.
Utilizing the newly acquired funds, the startup aims to advance its mission of bolstering the agricultural supply chain within India’s APMC/MANDI network.
Established in 2021 by Rama Rao Kancharapu, ONO operates as a platform for farmers, facilitating crop price discovery and mandi exploration.
It provides a range of services including ONO Connect for price and market discovery, ONO Cash for credit facilitation, ONO Click, a SaaS platform for commission agents and traders offering market intelligence, payments, collections, and market operations digitization, as well as ONO Mandi, a mid-mile trading platform.
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The startup asserts its operational presence in more than 45 mandis spanning six states, boasting a network of over 30,000 partners. Additionally, it reports facilitating seven commodity transactions on its platform.
Kancharapu expressed, “We’ve witnessed remarkable acceptance of our products in Mandis, and we’re confident in scaling our platform to establish a sustainable business with real-world impact. Having enduring partners like Aeravti Ventures and other industry leaders onboard enables us to expand our horizons and accelerate our growth.”
In 2021, ONO raised $530K in a funding round backed by numerous angel investors.
It competes with companies such as AgroStar, BigHaat, Cropin, Fasal, and Chifu Agritech, among others.
Rishabh Singh, managing partner at Aeravti Ventures, emphasized, “Reinforcing our commitment to India’s agricultural ecosystem has been pivotal for us. We firmly believe in technology’s transformative potential to tackle systemic challenges, and ONO stands poised to revolutionize India’s mandi ecosystem.”
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Last March, Aeravti Ventures achieved the first closing of its inaugural INR 100 Cr fund aimed at emerging technology startups. At that time, the venture capital firm announced its intention to invest in startups spanning various sectors including deeptech, biosciences, agritech, climate, and enterprisetech.
Investors have been increasingly drawn to India’s agritech sector for some time now.
For example, in December last year, Vegrow, a business-to-business fruits marketplace, concluded its Series C funding round with a combination of primary and secondary investments. This $46 million fundraising effort was spearheaded by Singapore’s GIC, in collaboration with Prosus Ventures, Matrix Partners India, and other participants.
During that same month, agritech startup Fasal secured Series A funding of INR 100 crore ($12 million), with co-leadership from TDK Ventures and British International Investment (BII).
According to analysis, agritech startups in India have garnered over $2.4 billion in funding since 2014.
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