Arya announced today that it has raised USD 6 million in pre-Series B funding from Omnivore and existing investor LGT Lightstone Aspada. Arya provides post-harvest services across the agricultural value chain, including warehousing, warehouse receipt financing, rural storage discovery, collateral management and market linkages. LGT Lightstone Aspada earlier invested in Arya’s Series A round back in December 2016.
Arya’s clients include farmers, farmer producer organisations (FPOs), financial institutions, SME agri processors, commodity traders and corporate agribusinesses. Arya also offers warehouse receipt financing via Aryadhan, its wholly owned NBFC subsidiary. Aryadhan provides credit to farmers, FPOs and SME aggregators (processors/traders) who have stored agri commodities in the Arya warehouse network.
Arya is unique in its ability to provide bundled warehousing and warehouse receipt financing solutions for smallholder farmers and FPOs in rural India. Based out of Delhi, the company currently manages over 2.5 million MT of agri commodities in its 1400 warehouses, with around 75% of its warehousing capacity located in primary and secondary (village and small mandi level) markets. Arya is also launching a rural storage discovery platform aiming to build a pan-India agri warehousing marketplace.
Until 2013, Arya was part of the JM Baxi Group. That year, Prasanna Rao and Anand Chandra acquired a controlling stake in the company. Prasanna had previously been the Head of Agri Commodity Finance at ICICI Bank, while Anand was previously ICICI Bank’s National Product Head for Agri Commodity Finance. More recently, they were joined by Chattanathan D, the former Group Product Head of the Rural and Inclusive Banking Group at ICICI Bank.
Arya plans to use the pre-Series B funding to accelerate the growth of their agri storage network, build their book in warehouse receipt financing, and lay the foundations of a pan-India agri warehousing marketplace . The company plans to launch their Series B fundraising round by mid-2020.
According to Prasanna Rao, Co-Founder & CEO of Arya, “Arya’s warehousing model profitably serves the agri storage and financing needs of smallholders, FPOs, and corporations in the smaller rural markets. We are delighted to have Omnivore join our investor group alongside LGT Lightstone Aspada. With their experience supporting technology driven innovation in agriculture, Omnivore’s coming on board will strengthen our next generation work to further improve efficiencies in the post-harvest ecosystem.”
Commenting on the transaction, Jinesh Shah, Managing Partner of Omnivore, said “The Arya team is transforming agri storage and financing across rural India, making small-scale warehousing viable at the village level, which farmers desperately require. Omnivore is thrilled to partner with Arya and Aspada to make this revolution a reality for all.”
Kushal Agrawal, Partner & CFO of Lightstone Aspada said, “Arya has successfully demonstrated its unique ability to serve the hitherto underserved warehousing and warehouse receipt financing markets in primary and secondary geographies, and we look forward to the growth phase of this business alongside a like-minded investor such as Omnivore.”