- Wednesday, February 26, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
FLIPKART India and Walmart on Monday (13) said they have invested $145 million (£110 million) in fresh-produce supply-chain company Ninjacart, which is headquartered in Bengaluru in the southern Indian state of Karnataka.
In October 2020, both Walmart and Flipkart Group had pumped in an undisclosed amount of funding in Ninjacart. The investment is expected to further accelerate the company’s move towards building technology and infrastructure to organise, empower and enhance the lives of millions of agri-value chain participants, including farmers, resellers, retailers, consumers and supply-chain participants, a statement read.
“The investment of USD 145 million from Flipkart and Walmart further validates and strengthens Ninjacart’s vision to ensure better access to high-quality fresh produce for more retailers and consumers across India while also creating economic opportunities and better incomes for farmers in India,” it added.
It may be noted here that Ninjacart has been investing significantly in tech platforms and supply-chain infrastructure over the past two years.
The company was founded in 2015 by Thirukumaran Nagarajan, Kartheeswaran K K, Ashutosh Vikram, Sharath Loganathan, and Vasudevan Chinnathambi.
It has raised funds from investors like Tiger Global, Accel, Tanglin, Steadview, Syngenta, Nandan Nilekani, and Qualcomm, among others.
“As a homegrown company, we have constantly focused on creating the right infrastructure and technological solutions that support local farmers, producers, and food processors. With this investment, we are further able to strengthen our grocery footprint and offering as consumers across the country throng to e-grocery for quality and affordable options in the fresh category,” Flipkart Group chief executive officer Kalyan Krishnamurthy said.
He said that Flipkart’s investment and partnership in Ninjacart over the years proves the continued commitment and success it has seen in the effort to create a democratic and organised agriculture market.
Ninjacart co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Thirukumaran Nagarajan said, “India is at a cusp of formalising the agriculture industry, with the advent to better road connectivity, GST, seamless payments, digital infrastructure, etc. This opens up a tremendous opportunity to organise our agri- ecosystem landscape like never before. We are investing in this huge potential to create value.”
He said the funds will be deployed to build world-class teams, scalable tech platforms to organise and grow the network.
Earlier this year, Ninjacart inked a memorandum of understanding with the Indian ministry of agriculture and farmer welfare to strengthen the market linkages and promote best practises in the farming sector.
