PC: The Economic Times
The latest development in the dairy tech space was Stellapps Technologies securing Series C funding in the form of $26 million. The funding round involved equity and debt financing. Blume Ventures, Omnivore, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation were among the existing investors joining Miledeep Capital as a new investor. The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) provided debt funding that further added to the financial support for Stellapps Technologies.
The Bengaluru-based firm completed this big funding round after a three-year break from seeking funds, though earlier this month, October 2021 saw Stellapps Technologies raise $18 million in a pre-Series C round from Nutreco that took the total funds raised by the company to nearly $50 million.
We will be able to scale our range of value-added dairy products across India, sustainably,” says Ranjith Mukundan, founder and CEO of mooMark. “The funding will also help us consolidate our presence in the export segment by offering contract manufacturing and private-label dairy products driven by quality, sustainability, and traceability.”.
Having started off as a Dairy IoT solutions company, Stellapps Technologies has evolved into a major contract manufacturer and private label of value-added dairy products in the brand “mooMark.” The company has now taken on a low-capex, technology-driven methodology to offer its products to customers across India and around the world.
With its highly advanced tech stack, Stellapps Technologies ensures greater traceability and sustainability at the products. The commitment towards sustainability through this ensures not just the mooMark products becoming fully traceable but also lending support towards reduction in carbon footprint, mainly at the farm level. This opens an opportunity for such businesses in FMCG, D2C, and HoReCa to churn out premium dairy products that would help them achieve their sustainability objectives.
Stellapps Technologies now touches the lives of more than 3.5 million farmers across 42,000 villages and digitizes over 14 million litres of milk flow every day. For the year ended in FY24, the firm earned approximately Rs 360 crore and expects Rs 400 crore for FY25, with audited results awaited. Consolidated loss nearly Rs 32 crore, revenue: Stellapps Technologies reported FY23 revenue of Rs 305 crore, as reported by data intelligence platform TheKredible.
So, the last year has seen all kinds of players getting venture fundings. This year, country brands like Country Delight, Akshayakalpa, and Sid’s Farm have been on the move. Talks are also happening for further capital raising in Otipy and Milky Mist, and so the sector will keep growing and room will open up for innovation and investment as well.
