Aquaconnect, a Chennai-based aquaculture business, has raised $8 million (about Rs 60 crore) in a venture debt financing round headed by Gurugram-based Trifecta Capital.
Previously, in July 2021, the business raised $4 million in a pre-Series A investment from Japan-based Rebright Partners, Flourish Ventures, AgFunder, 6G Capital, and current investors Omnivore and HATCH.
Aquaconnect is a full-stack platform that offers data-driven farm advisory solutions and marketplace solutions to Shrimp and Fish farmers. It was founded in 2017 by IIT Kanpur alumnus Rajamanohar. Through technology solutions, the platform works with fish and shrimp producers to improve farm production, financial access, and market connectivity.
“At Aquaconnect, our aim is to make the aquaculture value chain more efficient and transparent while increasing value realization through tech intervention. The fresh round of capital will help us achieve this goal,” said Rajamanohar.
Aquaconnect plans to use the new capital to develop its network of Aqua partners – franchise stores that provide excellent input items to fish and shrimp farmers – across the country, according to the release.
It will also concentrate on expanding its operations and improving Aquaconnect’s post-harvest market connectivity solutions.
According to the statement, it has been trying to overcome the hurdles in the aquaculture value chain using an integrated tech-driven approach, with the goal of becoming the largest aquaculture value chain aggregator.
Speaking on the investment, Nilesh Kothari, Managing Partner, Trifecta Capital, said: “Aquaconnect is a pioneer in the aquaculture sector and is digitizing the entire value chain connecting farmers with input manufacturers and institutional buyers. In the process, they are facilitating aquaculture farmers to realize better prices for their products and providing access to high-quality inputs at fair prices. India is among the top three seafood producing countries and yet the sector is largely unorganized.”
Notably, Aquaconnect has been recognized by ‘Forbes Asia 100 to watch’ and ‘World-Changing Ideas 2020’ by Fast Company. It is part of the Innovator cohort at Seafood Innovation Project and Hatch Accelerator, Norwegian Seafood Innovation Cluster.
Aquaconnect is a platinum winner of the Agriculture insuretech award by the World Bank Group. The company was selected for the fifth edition of Google for Startups Accelerator (GFS) India and was awarded the ‘Most Innovative AgTech Startup’ award by FICCI, recently.
