Agritech startup DeHaat laysoff less than a year after $115 mn fundraise

Agritech startup DeHaat has become the latest startup to resort to layoffs, less than a year after the company raised $115 million in what was the largest funding round for an Indian agricultural tech startup

In a virtual interaction with Moneycontrol on August 1, Kumar confirmed that the company had let go of people but the number of employees affected was not in the triple digits.

"The number of layoffs is incorrect. It (layoffs) was more of a corrective measure around performances and due to culture misfit but the number is definitely not in three digits," he said.

According to the company, it has an employee count of over 2,000. Kumar said in the last 14 to 15 months the company recruited more than 1,200 to 1,300 people.

Based in Gurugram, Haryana, and Patna, Bihar, DeHaat is a technology-based platform that offers end-to-end agricultural services to farmers.

Founded in 2012 by IIT, IIM and NIT alumni Kumar, Amrendra Singh, Shyam Sundar and Adarsh Srivastav, it counts Sequoia Capital India, Sofina, Lightrock, and Temasek as its investors.

It entered the soonicorn or 'soon-to-be-unicorn' club with a valuation of more than $500 million after the last funding round in October 2021.

A unicorn is a startup valued at a billion dollars or more. The company has raised close to $161 million since its inception.

According to an Inc42 report in February, while DeHaat doubled its revenue from operations in the financial year ending on March 31, 2021, it saw its losses widen almost three times on a year-on-year basis.

Kumar said the company was not planning on making a change in its growth strategy but aimed to achieve profitability by March 2024.

In April, the company acquired food tech startup Y-Cook India Pvt Ltd for an undisclosed amount. This was the fourth acquisition for DeHaat and came after it acquired agri-input marketplace startup Helicrofter in January to expand its presence in Maharashtra and the rest of western India.

In 2021, it acquired FarmGuide, which allowed integrating satellite-based crop advisory solutions for farmers. The company had in May 2019 acquired VezaMart, a platform that builds farm management solutions for farmers.