Bengaluru-based FALCA, an agritech startup that offers farming solutions through its hybrid digital and physical model, has raised over $3 million in a pre-Series A funding round led by Inflection Point Ventures, a Gurugram-based angel investment firm.
The funding round, which was a mix of debt and equity, also saw participation from other investors, including LetsVenture, Mumbai Angels, and HNIs.
Founded in 2018 by Santosh Danegoudar, FALCA provides farming solutions to small farmers such as machinery on rent, market linkages, storage solutions, advisory and technologies for enhancing farm productivity, among others.
The startup said it plans to use the raised capital to scale, hire talent, and build technology infrastructure for its platform.
“We directly work with farmers and offer them end-to-end farming solutions through a tech-based Phygital platform. Our rural presence and technology platform connects the smallholder farmers with the end markets for quality inputs, marketing produce, renting machinery, farm advisory and storage services,” said Santosh Danegoudar, who is also the CEO of FALCA.
FALCA claims that it works with 100,000 farmers and offers an ecosystem of more than 65 farm output buyers, over 60 input brands and advisory services supporting more than 40 crops in the country.
Speaking on the investment, Vinay Bansal, founder & CEO, of Inflection Point Ventures, said, “Falca with its extensive research has curated a plethora of services for farmers right from the grass root level to final dispersion of product to the end users. It aims to educate the farmers through its platform and make them well versed with the usage of technology for cultivation and the benefits the Falca has to offer to make a better living and profitable farming business. Along with its virtual support, the company now has its offline presence ‘Falca Rural Service Points’ with 30 centres. IPV aims to further strengthen the support for the farming community with FALCA.”
The agriculture market today stands at US$ 375 billion and agritech is expected to reach US$ 24 billion by 2025 with only 1% being addressed today giving FALCA a huge growth room to execute their scale-up plans.
Source @Indianstartupnews
