Agritech start-up Bijak raises USD 2.5 million from investors

New Delhi, Dec 17 () Agritech start-up Bijak on Tuesday said it has raised over USD 2.5 million (about Rs 18 crore) from various investors, including Omnivore and Omidyar Network India, for expansion of its business.

Sequoia Capital India's rapid scale-up programme, Surge and Better Capital have also invested.

Gurugram-based Bijak, which was launched in May 2019 by Nukul Upadhye, Mahesh Jakhotia, Jitender Bedwal, Daya Rai and Nikhil Tripathi, would utilise the fund on new technology and hiring fresh talent, among others.

Bijak is a platform that gives agricultural commodity buyers and sellers better prices, increased working capital, and optimised logistics. It brings accountability and transparency into the agricultural value chain through a buyer/seller rating system, and enables traders, wholesalers, and food processors to keep a ledger of their transactions, access transparent pricing, and improve their working capital cycles.

The app is available in several local languages and currently caters to multiple agricultural states, including Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Bihar, and Uttarakhand.

"Focused on addressing challenges such as accountability and trust in the B2B (business-to-business) agri commodity trade, we are targeting a USD 200 billion market in India which has almost 5 million middlemen. Additionally, we have customised the app for agricultural commodity traders, with terminologies used in the mandis (wholesale markets) that they are familiar with," said Bijak co-founder Nukul Upadhye.

Mark Kahn, managing partner of Omnivore, said, "As India's leading agritech-focused VC, Omnivore plans to help Bijak scale more aggressively, leveraging our network across the agri ecosystem to identify potential partnerships and onboard strategic B2B customers."

Omidyar Network India's Investment Partner Siddharth Nautiyal, said, "Bijak is aiming to build a first-of-its-kind private online marketplace that can help market discoverability, earn a fair price, create accountability and trust and provide services like credit and logistics to a market that is highly underserved. We believe all of this will lead to a greater benefit for the farmer."

Omnivore is a venture capital (VC) firm, based in India, which funds entrepreneurs building the future of agriculture and food systems. Omnivore has backed over 20 agritech start-ups since 2011. MJH HRS