Leads Connect, an agritech startup, has secured INR 500 crores ($62.5 million) from FMCG company BL Agro Industries Ltd.
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The leading FMCG company in India will eventually acquire a controlling position in Leads Connect after receiving investment from BL Agro over a three-year period.
Leads Connect will use the funding to advance technology, reach more farmers, FPOs, and co-operatives, and increase beneficiary farmers by opening AGRANI Centres in various cities, running awareness-raising campaigns, mergers and acquisitions, contract farming, and investing in deep tech and AI/ML in agriculture research. It will also improve BL Agro’s quality procurement and supply chain.
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In 2009, Navneet Ravikar founded Leads Connect to improve market linkages. The new initiative would offer BL Agro better supply chain management.
Commenting on the investment, Navneet Ravikar, chairman and managing director, Leads Connect Services, said, “With agritech at the forefront, Indian agriculture is at an inflection point. Agriculture contributes to almost 20% of India’s GDP and changing weather patterns and challenges around sustainability has been challenging the industry. It is time for agri-tech to play a larger role to increase productivity and mitigate the crisis for farmers. Our partnership with BL Agro will help us to expand agri-tech and agri-fintech in the country and bring in more value to Indian farmers.”
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Welcoming the association, Ashish Khandelwal, Managing Director, BL Agro said, “We are delighted to announce our strategic investment in Leads Connect aimed at creating a new chapter in the Indian agri-tech industry. Over the next three years, we would be investing Rs.500 crore leading to a controlling stake in Leads Connect. The synergies of BL Agro and Leads Connect will help Indian farmers get more value by improving market linkages. We hope that this association will help farmers get closer to the consumers with better supply chain management.”
About Leads Connect
LeadsConnect is an analytics firm with a primary focus on financial services, risk management, and data analysis and modeling driven by agritech. It attempts to connect the agribusiness value chain to enable a profitable, scalable, and sustainable ecosystem. The group has worked on research and development-based analytics for climate and hazards, landscape, biodiversity, cities, and geospatial analytics in addition to the main focus areas.
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