Investments in agri-food tech start-ups jump 97 per cent in FY21 to USD 2.1 billion: Report

Investments in agri and food tech start-ups rose 97 per cent to USD 2.1 billion during the last financial year, mainly driven by funding in restaurants marketplaces, according to a report.

'India AgriFood Startup-Investment Report' was released on Thursday by venture capital firms AgFunder and Omnivore.

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"Total investments in agrifoodtech start-ups for FY21 stood at USD 2.1 billion, up 97 per cent from FY20. Deal volume also saw significant growth, with 189 deals in FY21 versus 136 deals in FY20," the report said.

Restaurant marketplaces remained the dominant investment category, raising USD 1.33 billion, or 64 per cent of the total FY21 agrifoodtech funding.

Downstream start-ups, which include consumer-facing start-ups in eGrocery, restaurant marketplaces and premium branded foods, raised USD 1.77 billion in 2020-21, up 140 per cent from 2019-20.

The significant growth in downstream investments was primarily due to Zomato, which raised USD 1.2 billion (around 67 per cent of the total funding into downstream categories) in the lead up to its heavily subscribed public offer in early 2021-22.

The report said that upstream, which includes start-ups developing technologies for farmers and agricultural value chains, continued to garner investor interest with a slight increase in the total year-on-year funding.

"But, because of the downstream sector's explosive growth, the share of upstream investments fell significantly ? to 15 per cent of total FY21 investments, down from 42 per cent in FY20," it added.