Stellapps completes first close of pre-series C round to digitize Indian dairy sector

India’s leading dairy-tech start-up Stellapps has completed the first close of its pre-series C round from various investors. The total size of the round will be $18 million. Led by global animal nutrition and aquaculture company, Nutreco, the fundraising round saw participation from existing investors, including Qualcomm Ventures, Celesta Capital and ABB Technology Ventures. This information was shared in a press release from Stellapps.

Stellapps is an internationally acclaimed farm-to-consumer dairy digitization service provider, improving productivity and quality while ensuring end-to-end traceability across the dairy supply chain. The company plans to employ the funds to rapidly scale its traceability network and extend its digital footprint across India.

The Indian market for the dairy sector accounts for about 6.5 per cent of India’s GDP, a market worth about $225 billion. India is the largest milk producer in the world and contributes to 22 per cent of global milk production. Stellapps’ technology will ensure that farmers gain access to its services like farm improvement, cattle nutrition, credit, and insurance to deliver assured quality across the dairy supply chain.

“Our vision is to unlock unprecedented value across the dairy supply chain for all stakeholders, especially smallholder farmers,” said Ranjith Mukundan, CEO of Stellapps. “We are on a mission to shift the Indian smallholder farmers into the agripreneur orbit by enhancing productivity, improving quality, and enabling traceability through our smartMoo solutions. The support and confidence of our investors allow us to actualize our vision to enhance farmer income and profitability through a combination of our technology solutions, farm inputs, and market linkages.”

Stellapps was founded in 2011 by five technology industry veterans who believed that IoT could transform rural India. Its award-winning smartMoo technology solutions enhance productivity, milk quality, and enable traceability.

By enabling ecosystem partnerships through its online platform, Stellapps empowers farmers by providing access to financial services, quality nutrition and timely veterinary care. Stellapps' mooPay fintech arm facilitates the financial inclusion of smallholder farmers by providing access to digital payments, banking, savings, cash withdrawal, credit, and insurance.

“I am thrilled that Nutreco is investing in Stellapps, a game-changing technology for sustainable growth in the Indian dairy market,” Fulco van Lede, CEO of Nutreco said. “Our purpose, Feeding the Future, drives us to invest in innovative technologies that improve the sustainability of our food supply chain.”

Last year, Stellapps was one of two Indian companies featured in the list of Technology Pioneers by the World Economic Forum.

“Stellapps, with its full-stack IoT platform for end-to-end dairy supply chain management, is speeding up India’s digital transformation in farming and is also making a significant contribution to sustainability,” said Franziska Bossart, Global Vice President, ABB Technology Ventures.

“The dairy industry needs to provide customers visibility on the various ingredient quality parameters in a traceable way,” said Sudhir Rao, Managing Partner of Celesta Capital. “Technology interventions across the supply chain from ‘Farm to Fridge’ are an imperative, and Stellapps has invested in the end-to-end stack to be able to deliver quality certified milk under their mooMark initiative to discerning buyers across India.”