Aquaculture startup Aquaconnect raises $8M in funding led by Trifecta Capital

Chennai-based aquaculture startup Aquaconnect today announced it has raised $8 million (about Rs 60 crore) in a venture debt funding round led by Gurugram-based Trifecta Capital.

Prior to this, the startup had raised $4 million in a pre-Series A round in July 2021 from Japan-based Rebright Partners, Flourish Ventures, AgFunder, 6G Capital, and existing investors Omnivore and HATCH.

Founded in 2017 by IIT Kanpur alumnus Rajamanohar, Aquaconnect is a full-stack platform that offers data-driven farm advisory solutions and marketplace solutions to Shrimp and Fish farmers. The platform works with fish and shrimp farmers to improve farm productivity, financial access, and market linkage through technology solutions.

“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.

According to the statement, Aquaconnect will use the raised funding to deepen its presence across the country by expanding its network of Aqua partners - franchise stores that enable access to quality input products to the fish and shrimp farmers.

Additionally, It will also focus on scaling operations and enhancing Aquaconnect’s post-harvest market linkage solutions.

It has been working to navigate the challenges in the aquaculture value chain through an integrated tech-driven approach and aims to become the largest aquaculture value chain aggregator, the statement said.

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.

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