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iFarmer raises $2.1m in new financing round

Staff Correspondent
30 May 2022 00:00:00 | Update: 30 May 2022 01:23:25
iFarmer raises $2.1m in new financing round
iFarmer, which started operating in 2019, facilitates retail and institutional funders to finance farmers – Courtesy Photo

iFarmer, a full-stack agriculture platform providing agro-based services to farmers, has recently raised $2.1 million (more than Tk 18 crore) in a new financing round.

IDLC Venture Capital Fund, the VC arm of IDLC Finance, one of the largest non-banking financial institutions in Bangladesh, led the financing round, a press release said on Sunday.

Millville Opportunities, a hedge fund firm based in New York, participated in the round. Startup Bangladesh Limited, the flagship venture capital fund of the ICT ministry, also participated in the financing round.

iFarmer, which started its operations in 2019, facilitates retail and institutional funders to finance the farmers, and enables access to high-quality agri-inputs through a partnership with companies and retailers.

This, in turn, creates better market access for the farmers by aggregating products from the farmers and selling those to institutional buyers, retailers and in the wholesale markets, read the release.

With a team of 120 members, iFarmer has 63,000+ farmers, 2,900+ agricultural retailers and is operating in 19 districts.

“We are currently operating in 19 districts in Bangladesh— serving close to 63,000+ farmers, up from about 6,000 farmers in 2020”, said iFarmer Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Fahad Ifaz.

The agriculture platform works with 2900+ agri-input retailers to supply agriculture inputs, enabling the farmers to buy quality agro-inputs at an affordable price from nearby retailers.

iFarmer currently supplies 8000+ tonnes of agri produce directly procured from the farmers and then sells to institutional buyers, wholesale markets, and retailers.

It has grown on every front, including the revenue, which increased by 7.7 times in 2022. The revenue is driven by the supply of agri produce to the market, sales of agri-inputs to the retailers, and commission from financing.

“When we started supplying farm produce in June 2020, our monthly volume was around 50+ tons. Now it’s almost 8000+ tons. Every day, we aggregate produce from farmers and supply it to the market,” said Jamil M Akbar, co-founder and COO of iFarmer.

IDLC VC 1 Partner Mustafizur Khan said, “The IDLC Venture Capital Fund I aim to finance promising new businesses which are solving fundamental problems for Bangladesh.

“We are excited that iFarmer is unlocking the true potential of the agriculture sector through technology at scale. It is using innovation to enable farmers all across Bangladesh, and we believe they are solving the most crucial problems in the industry’s supply chain.”

Millville Opportunities Managing Partner Alejandro Montealegre said, “iFarmer has proven that it can significantly improve the lives of farmers while bringing efficiency to the agri supply chain. We are excited to back iFarmer as they are working to transform the agriculture sector that is critical to the economy of Bangladesh.”

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