Temasek-backed agritech startup DeHaat said Tuesday it has acquired the fresh fruit export business of Freshtrop Fruit Ltd to expand its overseas operations that currently account for 10% of its revenue.
The deal will involve the merger of Freshtrop’s network and grading, packing and precooling centres as well as manpower, including the top leadership team, into Dehaat, the company said. It didn’t disclose financial terms.
This is DeHaat’s seventh acquisition overall and fourth in the output domain. Last year, the company bought YCook India Pvt. Ltd and FieldFresh Foods to tap the growing Indian export market.
The investment aligns with the company’s vision to not only provide impetus to grape exports from India but also build R&D capabilities to grow new varieties of grapes, offering improved value propositions to farmers across Western India, said Shashank Kumar, co-founder and chief executive officer of DeHaat.
Freshtrop was founded in 1992 by Ashok Motiani and his family. The company is one of the largest exporters of grapes and other fruits like pomegranate and mango from India to supermarket chains in the UK and the European Union. It operates two packhouse facilities in Maharashtra.
DeHaat, operated by Green Agrevolution Pvt. Ltd, is based in Patna and Gurugram. It was founded in 2012 by Amrendra Singh, Shyam Sundar Singh, Adarsh Srivastav and Kumar.
DeHaat offers end-to-end agricultural services to farmers, including distribution of farm inputs, personalized farm advisory, financial services such as lending and insurance, and market linkages for selling produce.
In the financial year 2022-23, DeHaat’s loss nearly doubled to Rs 371 crore from Rs 191 crore in the year before. Its revenue from operations soared about 54% to Rs 1,965 crore from Rs 1,274 crore the year before.
The company raised $60 million in a funding round led by existing investors including Singapore’s Temasek Holdings and Belgium’s Sofina Ventures in December last year. RTP Global Partners, Prosus Ventures and Lightrock India also backed the company in that round, which valued the firm around $700-800 million.
