ⓘ Featured image: WayCool co-founder, Sanjay Dasari; Credits: VCcircle.com
Chennai-based agritech startup WayCool Foods, on Thursday, announced that it has raised $7.8 million in debt funding from Samunnati, RBL Bank and InnoVen Capital.
According to a statement, the company will utilise fresh funds to fuel its working capital, automation, distribution and warehousing. WayCool plans to achieve 70 per cent digital and mechanical automation across all distribution units by mid-2021 to improve process flow, efficiency and eliminating error-prone mundane activities.
Founded in 2015 by Karthik Jayaraman and Sanjay Dasari. WayCool connects farmers and food producers with restaurants and hotels, leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning to reduce food wastage and save production costs.
Speaking of the development, Jayaraman, CEO of WayCool, said,
“Samunnati and InnoVen capital have been our long-term partners in growth, and the present funding lines are a natural evolution of this partnership. We welcome RBL Bank to our platform. The innovative instruments that we are developing in partnership with RBL Bank will free the business from working capital as a growth limiter.”
The company claims that it currently disseminates 250 tonnes of food products daily via its distribution channels to over 8,000 clients, and that the products are sourced from over 50,000 farmers across 50 regions in India.
Chinna Pardhasaradhi, CFO of WayCool, added,
“We have always believed in using a blend of funding sources in order to maximise its capital efficiency, thus delivering superior returns to investors. A number of unique lines have been leveraged in the current round,”
Considering the data shown by Crunchbase, WayCool has raised around $70.6 million prior to the latest round. This is the third funding round for WayCool in this year. The company had raised $32 million from Lightbox in February, then a $5.5 million debt from IndusInd Bank in June. Besides this, WayCool also scooped a $114K grant from FMO in August.
