In its series B investment round, led by Prosus Ventures, Vegrow, a business-to-business (B2B) agritech marketplace for fruits, has raised $25 million (about Rs 198 crore).

Existing investors Matrix Partners India, Elevation Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Ankur Capital in the Bangalore-based startup took part in this round as well.

By combining different channels (wholesalers, semi-wholesalers, modern trade, and general trade) in 100 cities on the demand side and more than 20,000 farmers on the supply side, Vegrow helps bridge the gap between the supply and demand for fruits. It was founded in 2020 by Praneeth Kumar, Mrudhukar Batchu, Kiran Naik, and Shobhit Jain. The institutional investors own the remaining equity, with the founders collectively owning about 40 percent of it.

The agritech firm processes over 200 tonnes of fruits everyday and in one year, it has grown 15 times its size with a gross margin of about 20 percent. The company says that its deep tech and data stack are what nurtured the growth across the value chain.

It has built capabilities harnessing farmer chatter, estimate farmland produce and measure demand across tier-I, II and III markets.

The company generates $200 million in annualized revenue. Within the next five years, it hopes to generate a $5 billion result and develop sustainably.

The company estimates that India's $60 billion fruit market, where every fruit represents a multi-billion dollar opportunity.

Through its current investments in the animal protein and fresh produce industries, it has been constantly monitoring the agritech sector. It claims that fruit sectors are primed for comparable tech-driven disruption since they have historically been disorganized, fragmented, and inefficient.

By meeting the demand across all of India, Vegrow has propelled itself to the top thanks to its emphasis on scale and technology. It states that it looks forward to supporting them as they pursue the next phase of the nation's progress.

The company is said to use the capital to expand its geographic footprint while hiring and bolstering its tech stack along the way.

According to statistics from Venture Intelligence, the nation's agritech startups witnessed record fundraising in 2021, and more than $480 million has flowed into such businesses so far this year.

Recently, DeHaat, Gramophone, Reshamandi, AgNext Technologies, Cropin, Bijak, Onato, BharatAgri, and TartanSense have all raised money from risk investors.