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    Agritech startup Gramophone aims to clock Rs 1,000-crore GMV in FY23

    Synopsis

    Gramophone to use the capital to expand its offline retail network to 10,000 stores

    agritech startup GramophoneETtech
    Agritech startup Gramophone is eyeing to raise $35-50 million in funding as it aims to clock an overall gross merchandise value (GMV) of Rs 1,000 crore in FY23, a senior company official told ET.

    The company, backed by Info Edge, will use the capital to expand its offline retail network to 10,000 stores.

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    “Currently, our business is growing at the rate of 100% month-on-month. We are likely to hit the Rs 1000-crore GMV mark by end of FY23,” said Tauseef Khan, cofounder, and CEO of Gramophone. “We will look to raise around $35-50 million over the next three to six months.”

    The company, founded by Khan, Nishant Vats Mahatre, and Harshit Gupta in 2016, offers one-stop solutions for farmers.

    In October last year, the company had raised $10 million from investors led by Z3 Partners, along with participation from existing investors and family offices.

    Gramophone - which offers a full-stack platform to farmers, right from input to output - forayed into offline retail earlier this year and has a retail presence through 5,000 stores. This is likely to double to 10,000 in the current quarter, Khan told ET.

    The agritech startup has its stores in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Maharashtra. While some of them are owned and operated directly by Gramophone, the majority of them are under partnerships with existing agri-retailers.

    It doubled its revenue to Rs 48 crore in the financial year ended March 31, 2021, compared with Rs 19 crore revenue in the previous year.

    “We have taken an omnichannel approach to move into the next orbit of growth. Our partner stores act as Gramophone’s offline touchpoints and GramKonnect, our retailer app, as the online touchpoint,” Khan said.

    GramKonnect enables agri-input retailers to purchase seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, insecticides, herbicides, and agricultural hardware tools and equipment without dealing with multiple vendors.

    “There is a dire need to support the small retailers in the remotest parts of India as they struggle to run their businesses. Local wholesalers barely provide any service to them and quote rates that eat into the retailer’s already hair-thin margins. Moreover, access to branded products is beyond their reach due to their size and also because large manufacturers do not have the wherewithal to work with them directly,” Khan said.

    Through GramKonnect, agri-input retailers can access the input materials from multiple popular brands.

    Backed by capital and aided by widespread digitisation, the agritech players are growing at a faster clip in the last two years. They have seen record funding in 2021, with more than $480 million flowing into such firms so far this year, as per data from Venture Intelligence.

    Those who have raised capital from risk investors in recent times include DeHaat, Reshamandi, AgNext Technologies, Cropin, Bijak, Onato, BharatAgri, and TartanSense.

    The Economic Times

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