13 July 2023, Chennai: Hectar Global, a Chennai-based B2B cross-border Agri commodity procurement platform, announced today that it has raised US$2.1 Million in seed funding led by Powerhouse Ventures. The round also saw participation from WEH ventures, All In Capital, Indian Silicon Valley, and angel investors Anant Sarda and Adhish Ladha. Founded by National University of Singapore alumni Srinath Srinivasan, Sibhi Kumaran, and Aswath Balaji, Hectar Global helps food buyers worldwide to purchase container volumes of Agri commodities with e-commerce-level convenience.
With the global Agri commodities trade exceeding US$3 Trillion annually, Hectar Global aims to be at the forefront of the digital transformation in the industry. The company’s platform digitizes complex cross-border supply chain processes, making them more efficient, transparent, and sustainable. It leverages advanced data models and machine learning algorithms to provide real-time market information and actionable insights, helping customers plan their purchases to maximize profits.
Mr. Kshitij Golwalkar, General Partner at Powerhouse Ventures said, “Trading in Agri commodities requires deep domain expertise, given the inherent complexities in product qualities, price fluctuations, documentation, and freight. We feel that the team’s experience in cross-border trade and their ability to build technology products holds them in good stead to create significant impact in this industry.”
“While we are enamored by the opportunity, as the market size is large and there is no company effectively leveraging tech yet, our commitment to Hectar was primarily driven by the passion & execution demonstrated by the founding team. We believe there’s a definitive founder-market fit here” added Rohit Krishna, GP at WEH Ventures.
“We have maintained a strong emphasis on operating profitably right from our inception. Our internal accruals have taken care of all operating expenses so far and we are primarily viewing this capital infusion, and future equity rounds, to rapidly expand into new geographies, and strengthen our digital infrastructure” said Mr. Srinath Srinivasan, CEO of Hectar Global.
The company currently has offices in Chennai, Singapore, Dubai, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka and has shipped over 50,000MTs of Agri commodities to Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.
