Data Snapshot is a regular AFN feature analyzing agrifoodtech market investment data provided by our parent company, AgFunder.
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Agribusiness Marketplaces overtook Midstream Technologies as India’s most-funded upstream category in fiscal year (FY) 2022 — which ran April 2021 to March 2022. But the latter remains active overall, with startups raising $461 million, according to AgFunder’s India AgriFoodTech Investment Report.
The midstream is the “messy middle” of the agrifood value chain between the farm (or lab) and consumer. Typically, the category includes logistics and transport, food processing, cold chain storage, food waste mitigation and quality control, to name a few.
While overall deal count for Midstream Technologies dropped — from 29 in FY2021 to 19 in FY22 — the category still saw a 2.5X increase in funding. As AgFunder’s report notes, this reduction in deals is indicative of multiple sub-categories achieving maturity, such as logistics, transport and B2B retail.
Top Midstream Technologies deals in FY22
As was the case in FY21, B2B fresh food supplier Ninjacart raised the category’s biggest round in FY22: $145 million from Walmart, Flipkart and others.
Not to far behind was agri-commerce startup Waycool, which raised a $117 Series D round. and online wholesaler Jumbotail‘s $85 million Series C. Both Waycool and JumboTail were among the top deals last year, too.
“We have seen the fundraising process smoothening over time,” grain commerce platform Arya.ag said in the report. “Marquee investors have not only integrated agrifoodtech into their core investment strategy but they no longer shy away from supporting entrepreneurs right from their seed stage to large later rounds.”
The company aded that moving forward, the biggest hurdle for Midstream startups remains technological.
“The core challenge is still the adoption of technology which will need more time to resolve. However, the increased penetration of the internet and smartphones offers a lot of hope for more opportunities in the near future.”
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