Blue Earth Capital partners with Quona Capital to support Indian smallholders

Please find the full press release of Arya below.

India’s Leading Grain Commerce Platform Arya.ag Raises $29 Million in Pre-Series D Funding

Blue Earth Capital leads the round, with participation from existing investors Asia Impact and Quona Capital

Delhi, India, July 10, 2024 — Arya.ag, India’s largest integrated grain commerce platform, today announced that it has raised $29 million (INR 242 crore) in a Pre-Series D funding round. The round was led by Switzerland-based investment firm Blue Earth Capital, a new investor in Arya, in partnership with Quona Capital. The round also included participation from existing investors Asia Impact and Quona Capital.

Arya.ag offers a comprehensive agri-commerce platform that seamlessly connects sellers and buyers of agriproducts to facilitate and streamline commerce, driving efficiencies and reducing waste, to the benefit of the entire market. The platform integrates warehouse discovery, farmgate-level storage, finance and market linkages, providing a comprehensive solution across the entire value chain while addressing market inefficiencies.

Arya.ag plans to utilise the Pre-Series D funds to gain market share and improve its profitability. ​​The Group plans key strategic initiatives, including the deployment of satellite technology for improved farm productivity, reduced waste, and greater transparency and visibility across the value chain. The company will also use the funding to initiate partnerships to improve Package of Practices (PoP) on-farm and measures to reduce food loss across the supply chain, which will enhance climate resilience for its farmer base, improving the incomes of over 1,200 Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) while also delivering improved climate outcomes.

Arya.ag is the only Indian agritech platform at scale to report profits (INR 17 crore) over revenue of INR 360 crore in FY24. The company saw a profit growth of over 36% compared to FY23.

Rohan Ghose, Director of Private Equity Partnerships at Blue Earth Capital, commented: “We are incredibly proud to invest in Arya.ag, a company that is helping create a more dynamic and resilient agricultural market in India. This investment aligns perfectly with Blue Earth Capital’s mission of addressing some of the world’s most pressing social and environmental challenges and, by backing this innovative company and its exceptional management team, we are not only fostering agricultural advancements but also contributing to the economic growth and sustainability of rural communities and farmers across India.”

Christian Banno, Chief Investment Officer of Asia Impact remarked, “At Asia Impact, we believe that leveraging private capital for the public good can help build a more equitable and sustainable future for all. Arya.ag’s work with farmers, FPOs and ‘climate champions’ to build trust, optimise resource allocation, and minimise adverse environmental impacts has been extremely impactful, especially in the face of climate-induced stress in agriculture. We hope that together we can strengthen these networks and create value for all stakeholders in the agricultural ecosystem.”

Prasanna Rao, Arya.ag’s CEO and Co-founder, stated, “The Pre-Series D funding from Blue Earth Capital, along with the continued support from Asia Impact SA and Quona Capital, validates our philosophy of creating a commercially attractive business model delivering value to all stakeholders in the agri-ecosystem, especially the smallest of stakeholders at the fringes of inclusion. This investment will help accelerate our growth trajectory. With these funds, we plan to expand our reach, serve more farmers and buyers, and introduce innovative offerings to strengthen our position as India’s most trusted agri-commerce platform.”

The company aims to impact over 10 million farmers by empowering them to sell their produce at the right time and to the right buyer in the next 3-4 years. It will facilitate over $3 billion in agri-loans, and create commerce linkages of over $4 billion while increasing its storage footprint by over 4X by 2028.

Setuka Partners served as the strategic advisor for this equity round.

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About Arya.ag
Arya.ag is India’s largest and only profitable grain commerce platform. It enables freedom of choice for farmers and their organizations to decide ‘when’ and ‘to whom’ they would want to sell their produce post-harvest by offering access to farmgate-level storage, seamless finance and transparent commerce. It eliminates the trust deficit in grain commerce through its exponentially growing layer of visibility and control, currently stretching across 60% of Indian districts, covering over 11,000 agri-warehouses. Arya.ag aggregates and stores USD 3 billion of grain annually while enabling disbursement of over USD 1.5 billion of loans to small-holder farmers, their organizations and other stakeholders. Arya.ag works towards creating equitable value chains in agriculture, assuring inclusive growth and greater transparency.

About Blue Earth Capital
Blue Earth Capital is a global, independent, specialist impact investor, headquartered in Switzerland, with operations in New York, London, and Konstanz. Blue Earth Capital seeks to address the world’s most pressing social and environmental challenges by delivering measurable impact alongside aiming for attractive and market-rate financial returns. The company operates dedicated private equity, private credit, and fund solutions as well as separately managed accounts. Blue Earth Capital is owned by the Blue Earth Foundation, a Stiftung (charity/trust) registered in Switzerland that focuses on deep impact to support initiatives and business ventures to help deliver a more equitable and sustainable future.

About Asia Impact Invest
Asia Impact SA is a Luxembourg-based investment company promoting impact investments in India and SEA, in different sectors and at different development stages, from start-up to growing/maturing. Among the leading initiatives where Asia Impact is actively involved we are particularly proud to mention all CreditAccess’ microfinance companies in India and Southeast Asia. Further, Asia Impact structures investment initiatives in single business/companies (club deals) and is currently promoting a new Luxembourg SICAV fund, investing in public listed equity securities of Indian companies.

About Quona Capital
Quona Capital is a leading venture firm focused on fintech for inclusion in emerging markets. Quona’s global partners are experienced investors and operators in both emerging and developed markets, and back entrepreneurs whose companies have the potential to generate outstanding financial returns while promoting breakthrough innovation in financial inclusion for both consumers and SMEs. Quona has supported over 70 financial technology companies expanding access for underserved consumers and small businesses in India and Southeast Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East (MENA).  More at quona.com.

Press Contacts:

Ann Thomas for Arya.ag (India)
ann.thomas@arya.ag
+91 9158222248

Simon Markebeck,Kekst CNC for Blue Earth Capital
blueearthcapital@kekstcnc.com
+46761279072

Shannon Austin for Quona Capital (US)
shannon@quona.com
+1 (703) 338-8813