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iFarmer, An Bangladeshi AgriTech Startup, Raised $2.1 million
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iFarmer enables retail and institutional financiers to finance farmers and provides access to high-quality agri-inputs
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Alejandro Montealegre, Managing Partner of Millville Opportunities, stated,
“iFarmer has demonstrated that it can greatly enhance farmers’ life while also increasing the efficiency of the agri supply chain”
iFarmer, a full-stack agricultural platform that provides farmers with agri-based services, has secured $2.1 million (more than Tk 18 crore) in a fresh funding round to continue its rapid expansion. According to a news release, the fundraising round was led by IDLC Venture Capital Fund, the venture capital arm of IDLC Finance, one of Bangladesh’s major non-banking financial companies.
iFarmer, An Bangladeshi AgriTech Startup, Raised $2.1 million
Millville Opportunities, a New York-based hedge fund, took part in the round. Startup Bangladesh Limited, the flagship venture capital fund of the Bangladesh Government’s ICT Ministry, also took part in the fundraising round.
Bangladesh has around 16.5 million farmers, with almost 80 percent being smallholders. Farmers in Bangladesh have the most difficult obstacles in obtaining funding and high-quality agricultural inputs such as seeds, herbicides, fertilizers, and so on, as well as finding clients for their output.
iFarmer, which began operations in 2019, is the country’s largest agri-tech startup, delivering large-scale solutions to these difficulties. Through a relationship with enterprises and retailers, iFarmer enables retail and institutional financiers to finance farmers and provides access to high-quality agri-inputs.
This, in turn, improves farmers’ market access by collecting products from farmers and selling them to institutional purchasers, retailers, and wholesale marketplaces.
Fahad Ifaz, Co-Founder and CEO of iFarmer, said,
“We are presently functioning in 19 districts in Bangladesh, servicing close to 63,000+ farmers, up from roughly 6,000 farmers in 2020,”
iFarmer works with approximately 2,900 agri-input shops to offer agricultural inputs, allowing farmers to purchase high-quality agro-inputs at low prices from local retailers. iFarmer presently delivers over 8000 tons of agricultural goods directly from farmers, which it subsequently distributes to institutional customers, wholesale marketplaces, and retailers.
iFarmer has expanded in every way, including income, which has climbed 7.7 times by 2022. Revenue is generated through the provision of agricultural produce to the market, the sale of agricultural inputs to retailers, and the commission from financing.
Jamil M Akbar, Co-founder and COO of iFarmer,
“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,”
Fahad Ifaz, CEO of iFarmer, has spent almost a decade working for agricultural and rural development in South Asia with organizations such as the World Bank, CARE, and Swisscontact. Jamil Akbar, on the other hand, has a history in technology and project management for big scale IT organizations that serve worldwide clientele. iFarmer has over 63,000 farmers and over 2,900 agricultural dealers and operates in 19 regions with a workforce of 120 people.
Mustafizur Khan, Partner, IDLC VC 1, stated,
“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”,
Alejandro Montealegre, Managing Partner of Millville Opportunities, stated:
“iFarmer has demonstrated that it can greatly enhance farmers’ life while also increasing the efficiency of the agri supply chain. We are thrilled to support iFarmer as they try to revolutionize the agriculture sector, which is important to Bangladesh’s economy.”
The business intends to use the new funds to grow into other areas in Bangladesh, build its supply chain infrastructure to deliver agricultural supplies, and aggregate farm output. iFarmer has also conducted crop insurance pilots and has been developing sensor and remote sensing-based advice services such as soil analysis, fertilizer suggestion, and weather forecasting.