Farm Tech Platform DeHaat Acquires Agri-input Marketplace Helicrofter

DeHaat, the technology-based platform offering end-to-end agricultural services to farmers in India, today announced its acquisition of Maharashtra-based B2B agri-input marketplace startup, Helicrofter. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

Helicrofter encompasses over 2000 agri-input retailers and 30 sellers across Maharashtra.

DeHaat serves over 700,000 farmers across Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. The addition of Helicrofter to its roster comes in line with the goal of geographical expansion, as it marks DeHaat’s entry into Maharashtra.

Founded in 2020 by Siddhartha Choudhary, Helicrofter is a farm input e-commerce platform designed to do away with supply chain inefficiencies in the rural ecosystem. The company has reached revenue of Rs. 50 crore.

Amrendra Singh, Co-founder – DeHaat, said, “At DeHaat, we have built a crop and service agnostic, farmer-first model. We have been consistent with 35-40% growth in our network on a Month on Month basis, and this acquisition will cement our footprint into Maharashtra and thereby the Western part of India, which forms a major agri cluster for the nation. Over the years, DeHaat’s micro-entrepreneur network has grown to 4000 in Eastern and Central parts of India. With the addition of Helicrofter’s network, we will now add a wide range of prospective micro-entrepreneurs from Western India to this list.”

DeHaat provides farmers with access to over 3,200 agricultural inputs, combined with AI-based customised crop advisory on pest & disease management, delivered via mobile app and call centres. The platform also aggregates 30+ crops from farmers on their network and directly supplies it to over 600 commodity bulk buyers, including retail chains, e-commerce players, FMCG giants, and SME food processors. In the last six months, DeHaat has also integrated financial services into its list of offerings. Having been backed by some of the biggest names in the business like Prosus Ventures, Sequoia Capital India, RTP Global, FMO and Omnivore, DeHaat closed their latest round of funding in October of 2021 by raising $115 Mn led by Sofina and Lightrock.

This is the third acquisition for DeHaat on their path for inorganic growth. Last year, they acquired FarmGuide, which allowed them to integrate Satellite-based crop advisory solutions for farmers. Being well capitalised and the largest full-stack agritech player in the business, DeHaat is aiming for a pan India expansion of farmer communities & its Micro-Entrepreneur network over the next 10-12 months.

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