Featured in Business Line
The acquisition to help Samunnati in reaching a larger number of FPOs and agri-enterprises
Chennai-headquartered Samunnati Financial Intermediation & Services Pvt Ltd has acquiredc, a farmer centric agri-supply chain platform in a share swap deal. The details of the transaction were not disclosed.
The acquisition will help Samunnati expand its footprint in the central and northern parts of the country, where Kamatan has been working with over 50 farmer producer organisations (FPOs) helping them connect with corporate buyers. Also, it will help Samunnati expand its reach among small traders, farm aggregators, and agri-SMEs in these regions.
Anilkumar S G, Founder and CEO, Samunnati, said Kamatan has built supply chains for all farm produce, leveraging technology to reduce wastage and inefficiencies, while linking producers and bulk buyers. This has a strong co-relation with Samunnati’s work with FPOs on the supply side and agri-enterprises on the demand side across 21 states in India. “We look forward to bringing the benefits of our joint synergies to FPOs and agri-enterprises across the nation,” Anilkumar said.
Samunnati, which provides financial, market linkage and advisory services for the agri sector, has worked with about 800 FPOs across the country. FPOs account for about a third of Samunnati’s exposure. Total disbursement by Samunnati in the past six years stood at ₹6000 crore. The current net worth of the company stands at Rs 505 crore, Anilkumar said.
The buyout will help accelerate Samunnati’s journey towards becoming a full spectrum agri-solutions service provider consolidating its position in the space. As part of the deal, all 45 employees of Kamatan including its co-founder and CEO – Pravesh Sharma will join Samunnati.
Sharma, a bureaucrat turned entrepreneur, will join the board of Samunnati and drive the FPO engagement and farmer engagement of the merged entity, Anilkumar said.
Interestingly, Elevar Equity is an investor in both these entities. Samunnati had also earlier invested in Kamatan.
Kamatan’s expertise in agricultural institution building, farming best practices, farmer collectives, distribution, logistics and technology coupled with Samunnati’s solutions approach through aggregation, market linkages and advisory services (AMLA) is expected to help agri value chains operate at a higher equilibrium, the companies said.
“We are confident that our combined efforts will result in a bigger bouquet of services reaching a larger number of FPOs and agri-enterprises. We aim to touch about 1,000 FPOs across the country over the next two-to-three years,” said Sharma said.
