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The traditional supply chain is highly inefficient, unorganized, and sees a lot of wastage when it comes to food items. Besides, it has always been discovered that the farmers experience price risk, asymmetry in information about demand, inefficiency when it comes to distribution, and also fall prey to delayed payments. Furthermore, the retailers also face a whole lot of problems pertaining to higher costs, low-quality items, unhygienic produce, volatility of prices, and are spurred to rush to the market regularly even amidst erratic conditions. All of these are reasons why Ninjacart came into being.
Ninjacart is India's largest Fresh Produce Supply Chain platform, which is built to improve the supply chain distribution when it comes to fresh produces. The ninjacart company is a pioneer in solving one of the toughest supply chain problems in the world by leveraging innovative technology. The high-quality and hygienically-handled fresh produce ensures healthy food to the consumers along with maintaining transparency among the points of supply chain and distribution. Read more to find out about Ninjacart company details, ninjacart founders, ninjacart revenue, ninjacart business model, etc.
Ninjacart - Company Highlights
- Startup Name-Ninjacart
- Headquarters-Bangalore, Karnataka, India
- Industry-Logistics, Supply Chain
- Founded-2015
- Founders-Ashutosh Vikram, KartheeSwaran KK, Sharath Loganathan, Sachin Jose, Thirukumaran Nagarajan, Vasudevan Chinnathambi
- CEO-Thirukumaran Nagarajan
- Funding-$367.8 mn (May 2022)
- Revenue-$97.23 mn (Rs 755 cr in FY21)
- Valuation-$815 mn (May 2022)
- Area Served-India
- Website-www.ninjacart.in
Ninjacart - About and How it Works?
Ninjacart is India's largest fresh produce supply chain company that is solving one of the toughest problems in the world through technology. Headquartered in Bengaluru, Ninjacart company connects producers of food directly with retailers, restaurants, and service providers with the help of in-house applications that drive the end-to-end operations.
Currently, the Ninjacart Supply Chain is equipped to move 1400+ tonnes of perishables from farms to businesses, every day, in less than 12 hours. The ninjacart startup currently has a network of more than 200 collection centres and over 1,200 warehouses in the country.
The Ninjacart company is not only a developer of agricultural marketing but also provides a supply chain platform intended to revolutionalize the fresh produce supply chain. The ninjacart app and website leverage data science, infrastructure, and networks to connect farmers directly to businesses and end retailers such as grocery stores, enabling retailers and merchants to source fresh farm produce directly from farmers in less time and in a cost-effective way.
Ninjacart India has eliminated intermediaries by taking control of the Supply Chain by using technology and analytics.
The company has built reliable, cost-effective, and high-speed logistics and infrastructure to solve inefficiencies in the Supply Chain.
On one end, farmers get better prices and consistent demand, and on the other end, retailers receive fresh produce at competitive prices that are delivered to their doorstep.
Ninjacart - Founders and Team
The Ninjacart founders are Ashutosh Vikram, Kartheeswaran KK, Sharath Loganathan, Sachin Jose, Thirukumaran Nagarajan, and Vasudevan Chinnathambi, 2015. The ninjacart company has successfully built a tech-enabled supply chain for fresh farm produce and is now able to deliver over 1,400 tonnes of fruits and vegetables daily.
Ashutosh Vikram
Ashutosh Vikram is the co-founder of Ninjacart. After completing his Btech degree in Computer Science from B.I.E.T Jhansi, Vikram obtained a PGDM from IIM Kozhikode. Ashutosh started by founding Shout App, after which he joined CommonFloor.com as the Associate Product Manager. Again, after a little more than a year and a half, Vikram joined OLACabs as the Associate Product Manager, but he served this role only for 6 months when he decided to co-found Ninjacart. Along with being the co-founder of Ninjacart, Vikram also serves as a Program Manager/Mentor.
Kartheeswaran KK
Kartheeswaran is known as the co-founder of Ninjacart, and also serves as the COO of the company. KK completed a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science from the College of Engineering, Guindy and then went for PGP in General Management from IIM Ahmedabad. Kartheeswaran was a Student Director at CEG Tech Forum and he soon joined Microsoft as the Program Manager, but he left the role within 2 months and joined TaxiforSure with the same designation. He left the company a year after his joining and co-founded Ninjacart, where he also served as the CTO of the company.
Sharath Loganathan
After obtaining a Mechatronics Engineering Bachelor's degree from Anna University, Sharath went for a PGDM in General Management from IIM Kozhikode. In his professional life, Loganathan started as the Team Lead at Satyam Computers and Services Ltd., he eventually joined Financial Inclusion Network and Operations Ltd as a Manager after leaving his previous job. Loganathan left his job after a period of a little more than 2 years and decided to pave his entrepreneurial career. He started by co-founding EduRaft Solutions and the Shout Out App. However, he spent around a year at each of the companies after which he joined CommonFloor.com as a Product Manager. However, he left the company in less than 2 years' time to co-found Ninjacart.
Thirukumaran Nagarajan
Ninjacart Co-founder and CEO Thirukumaran Nagarajan was a BE Electrical and Electronics student at the College of Engineering, Guindy. He was then enrolled in a course in Foreign Exchange, and Finance at the Università Commerciale 'Luigi Bocconi'. Nagarajan again pursued an MBA (PGDM) from the Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode logo Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode. Starting with ABB as a Sales and Marketing Executive, Nagarajan then joined Axis Bank after 2 years. After around 1.6 years, he left Axis Bank and joined as an Investment Associate at Aavishkaar. Nagarajan then co-founded EduRaft Private Ltd. A serial entrepreneur now, Thirukumaran Nagarajan went on to found 2 more companies - Shout and Ninjacart. He also worked at TaxiforSure for a brief period of 9 months in between before he founded Ninjacart, where he is presently a Co-founder and CEO.
Vasu C
Vasu C is another co-founder of Ninjacart. He had previous experiences serving as a Senior Systems Engineer at Infosys, Product Manager at Firefly E-ventures, and a Product Manager for TaxiforSure, before he co-founded Ninjacart along with the other co-founders. Vasudevan has cites Shanmuga Arts, Science, Technology and Research Academy and School of Inspired Leadership as his alma mater.
Sachin Jose
Sachin Jose is an Ex-co-founder of Ninjacart. Jose is an alumnus of the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design. CommonFloor was the first company that Jose worked in as an intern and later as a Visual Designer. Sachin then co-founded Shout, where he stayed for less than 6 months before co-founding Ninjacart in 2015. However, he quit the company in September 2017. Jose worked with a range of companies like Verizon, Saiga, Byjus, and Think & Learn and is presently serving as a Product Design Lead at rebuy recommence.
The startup team of Ninjacart bonded together with Thiru leading the setup, who soon found Sharath as the obvious choice because the two of them have always been partners in crime since the biryani startup days. KK, Vasu, and Ashutosh soon came together to form Ninjacart.
The Ninjacart team is currently led by Thirukumaran Nagarajan - Ninjakart as the Founder & CEO where Abhishek Agarwal, Prashannth Vijayakumar, Kartheeswaran K K, and Theyagarajan S manage key leadership positions.
Ninjacart - Startup Story
Ninjacart startup started operating in 2015 as a hyperlocal grocery delivery platform, and its main aim was to help retailers take their inventory online and deliver quality groceries to consumers in less than 60 minutes from ordering at scale. This was still a novel concept back then.
The Ninjacart pitch that was to be presented to Accel was an interesting story that Thiru (Founder and CEO of Ninjacart) and Subrata Mitra (Partner at Accel) can clearly remember even after so many years since the launch of Ninjacart. It was a Saturday afternoon when Subrata planned to meet two entrepreneurs at his own house, but to his surprise, he saw five of them showing up at his doorstep. This made Subrata hold the meeting at the dinner table. The Founders of Ninjacart didn't have any formal pitch ready, so they just wanted to talk about their idea, product and plans. Thiru opened their app and showed how people can order via the same, which impressed Subrata. The Accel Partner was impressed by the quality of the app and the potential opportunity for growth that it had in the market. However, what impressed him the most is the team at Ninjacart.
But soon Ninjacart founders realized that with little product differentiation, customers were unwilling to pay a premium rate just for the marginal convenience of ordering online, especially for fruits and vegetables. On one hand, kirana partners faced problems regarding tedious procurement processes and proper management of quality, hygiene, price, assortment, and customer understanding. On the other, farmers experienced unfair practices, high food wastage due to a supply-demand mismatch, and lower incomes.
So, they changed the ninjacart business model and the ninjacart revenue model to an agri-tech platform to solve one of the toughest agricultural supply chain problems at its root, built reliable, cost-effective, and high-speed infrastructure, and enabled retailers and merchants to source fresh produce directly from farmers daily.
Ninjacart - Mission and Vision
"Our vision is to build India's most efficient and largest Supply Chain platform and improve the lives of producers, businesses, and consumers in a meaningful manner," says the vision statement of the brand.
The company's mission at present is to focus on "making the Ninjacart innovation more accessible to the most fragmented parts of society". Ninjacart is intending to leverage the strengths and resources of the company to innovate for new product categories and customer segments along with solving complex supply chain problems.
Ninjacart - Name, Tagline, Logo and its Meaning
Ninjacart logo is in green colour which indicates the company's intentions to revolutionalize the fresh produce supply chain. The Ninjacart logo is written in a simple font, while the Ninjacart tagline makes it clear to understand what the company does and stands for
"Revolutionizing the Fresh Produce Supply Chain" goes the tagline of the company.
Ninjacart - Business and Revenue Model
Ninjacart's business model is based on removing inefficiencies and intermediate middlemen in the fruits and vegetables supply chain. On one hand, the company helps improve farmers’ incomes and provides a consistent demand and on the other hand, they deliver quality, fresh, and hygienically handled produce to retailers and food service providers. Ninja cart buys from farmers and sells to retailers and food service providers within 12 hours.
Nagarajan says that more than 25% of the vegetables Ninjacart sells are procured directly from farmers. The ninjacart business model helps the company in engaging farmers in various awareness programs to educate them about the Ninjacart app and the benefits of selling directly to the venture.
Ninjacart earns from the sales of the fresh goods to the retailers at profitable prices. The company also makes some money via its app. The Ninjacart revenue model aims to further build a farmer ecosystem and has already started its work on creating a fintech platform for the farmers. The ninjacart app will help them get the capital they would need to buy tractors, build greenhouses, and other working capital they need from time to time.
Ninjacart - Revenue and Growth
Ninjacart Financials
Ninjacart is one of the most progressive among the agri-tech startups of India, which is easily the biggest company in terms of scale the operating revenue of which is to cross the Rs 1000 crore mark in the fiscal year FY22. The operating revenue of Ninjacart was last reported at Rs 755 crore in FY21, which grew by 61% from Rs 469 cror in FY20.
Revenue Breakdown
The company gained 85.5% of its revenues from the sale of fruits and vegetables, which it sold to retailers and the operators of restaurants, which rose to Rs 645.30 crore from Rs 444.94 crore in FY20. The sale of staples and other products managed to pour in another Rs 97.70 crore, while the delivery charges accounted for the remaining Rs 12 crore during FY21.
The company claims to have more than 200 collection centres across the country to procure fresh goods, and 1200+ warehouses to stock them. Valued at over $815 million, Ninjacart is currently hailed as the highest valued agri-tech startup, as of January 27, 2022. The $815 million valuations of Ninjacart is a decent indicator that the agri-tech startup can easily become the first unicorn in the space ahead!
Some of the Ninjacart growth highlights are as follows:
Ninjacart is hailed as the pioneer of tech-driven supply chain space for fresh produce
The company is backed by a wide range of esteemed venture funds and companies including Accel, Qualcomm, Tiger Global, and others
The Ninjacart Supply Chain is currently equipped to move more than 1400 tonnes of perishables from farms to businesses, every day, and that too within less than 12 hours
The Bengaluru-based company proves beneficial to farmers, retailers, and consumers
Ninjacart is presently operating in 150+ markets across multiple agri-commodities
Ninjacart launched Agri Seed Fund on March 4, 2022. The Agri Seed Fund is a $25 million fund, which is aimed to support the emerging and new-age startups in the agricultural sector. This seed fund would help Ninjacart make "seed investments in startups, entrepreneurs and tech innovators", who will come up with "unique, sustainable and tech-enabled solutions", as per the company's press release.
It is important to note here that with this new seed fund initiative, Ninjacart will invest in teams who have great technical abilities but may lack a particular solution or the right idea at the moment. This development comes as part of the agri-tech giant’s larger effort to boost the Indian agricultural landscape. The Agri Seed Fund is focused on strengthening innovation and accelerating disruption across the agriculture sector with the help of seed investments over the next two years.
Ninjacart - ESOPs
Ninjacart crossed the $800 million mark in valuation when it raised its Series D round of funding in December 2021. This also led the company to increase the size and value of its ESOP pool. According to the regulatory filings, as of April 29, 2022, Ninjacart passed a special resolution to increase its share options from 2444 to 3156, the ESOP pool of which is currently valued at around Rs 170 crore.
The last ESOP news of Ninjcart was heard when the company announced its ESOP buyback last in January 2022, when a buyback worth Rs 100 crore ($13.33 mn) was announced from its workforce, which also included MSOPs.
Ninjacart - Partnerships
Ninjacart mainly partners with the farmers and the retailers of the country to ease things in the supply chain. The company has earlier partnered with Flipkart in 2019, which went into a strategic partnership to find a reliable supplier of fresh produce.
The company has partnered with agri-tech platform Kilofarms and has made the production of residue-free tomatoes easy.
Ninjacart - Awards
Hailed as the largest B2B fresh produce supply chain company in India, Ninjacart has been awarded several awards and recognitions throughout the years. The company has recently been awarded the 'Startup of the Year- 2021' by Agriculture Today magazine on October 22, 2021. The company has also been recognized as the 'Overall Supply Chain Solution of the Year' in the Agtech Breakthrough Awards 2020.
Ninjacart - Challenges Faced
“It’s been a crazy journey, we encountered a lot of problems and we solved every small issue we met on the way with the help of technology and right now we move at least 1,000 tonnes of vegetables and fruits across seven cities,” says Thirukumaran Nagarajan, Ninjacart founder and CEO of Ninjacart.
The journey of any startup does not begin with immediate success. What once appeared to be problems may not actually create that much of an impact on the overall market, but something else completely unexpected could crop up. Thirukumaran Nagarajan (ninjacart founder and CEO) initially expected to scale up to 50 tonnes of fruits and vegetables from the get-go. It was only when the team first confronted the behemoth of Indian agri-trading that the importance of effectively understanding the real problem and pivoting the startup’s problem statement came into play. But this is not the only time startups should focus on pivoting, according to Thirukumaran.
The founder of ninjacart states, “Many entrepreneurs struggle to scale once a startup enters the growth stage. When you are a small size company, your needs and the problems you look to solve are completely different. Once you start growing, the business demands changes. For instance, we started with a supply of 1 or 2 tons of farmer produce. But today, we have grown to almost 300 tons of supply — in a day. Of course, we faced many problems related to scaling, like managing the large supply of the produce, keeping away from frauds, and hiring the right people.”
The major challenges that Ninjacart and the country faced earlier were associated with:
Thefarmers experience price risk, asymmetry of information about demand, distribution inefficiency, and often received late payments.
The retailers often face problems with higher costs, unhygienic produce, which often turns out to be of low quality, along with other problems of high-price volatility and the hassles of going to market each day.
Besides, the traditional supply chain had also been declared highly inefficient and unorganized, with a high rate of wastage of food.
However, Ninjacart has brought effective solutions to dodge the challenges that the industry and its representatives faced earlier. Fueled by the latest technologies and services, Ninjacart has eliminated the role of the intermediaries and has controlled the supply chain commandingly. It has built cost-effective, reliable, and efficient logistics and infrastructure to wipe out the inefficiencies in the Supply chain. Ninjacart has evolved into an organization that looks up to the farmers who now get better prices and consistent demands, while the retailers receive the fresh produce that they wanted and at competitive prices, which are also delivered to their doorsteps.
Ninjacart - Funding and Investors
Ninjacart has received $367.8 mn in funding as of May 2022. The company received fresh funds worth $9.6 mn (Rs 75 cr), as per the news dated May 18, 2022. In this fresh funding round, STIC and Mainstreet Digital both invested Rs 37.5 crore each.
The previous funding that Ninjacart received came in on December 13, 2021, when the company mopped up $145M in funding led by Flipkart and Walmart. The company has seen 15 funding rounds in total and the company has been backed by around 22 investors till now
Ninjacart - Competitors
The top Ninjacart competitors are
- DeHaat
- WayCool
- Farmioc
- Chilibeli
- AgroStar
- FarmLead
Ninjacart - Future Plans
Ninjacart looks forward to a future that will be driven by data and technology. The company has a database of around 40 different markets in terms of arrivals, supply, price, etc. According to Thirukumaran (the ninjacart owner and CEO), they can predict the prices of vegetables and fruits, and production output in the future. The ninjacart Bangalore is the head office of the company, while it is also present in Chennai.
According to Vasu, Ninjacart wants to focus on small vendors, mom-and-pop stores, and unorganized provision stores — a segment it currently caters to and where the efficiency of its model lies. Ninja cart has 20,000 customers, including restaurants.
“In the past three years, we have built a template for the business which is creating value for all stakeholders,” said Kartheeswaran K K, chief operating officer and one of the six founder of ninjacart. “Our focus is how we can take this to 1 million farmers in 10-15 cities across India and make it into an alternative supply chain for fruits and vegetables,” he said.
Ninjacart founder and CEO, Thirukumaran Nagarajan has revealed that the company is looking to build a fintech platform for the farmers that would help them with the necessary capital that they would need to set up greenhouses, buy tractors, and more such investments. He further added about ninjacart that this will be a key component of the farmer ecosystem that they are working on!
FAQs
What is Ninjacart?
Ninjacart company is India's largest fresh produce supply chain company that is solving one of the toughest problems in the world through technology.
Who's the CEO of Ninjacart?
The ninjacart founder, Thirukumaran Nagarajan is the current CEO of Ninjacart.
Who founded Ninjacart?
The Ninjacart founders are Ashutosh Vikram, KartheeSwaran KK, Sharath Loganathan, Sachin Jose, Thirukumaran Nagarajan and Vasudevan Chinnathambi.
How does Ninjacart make money?
Ninjacart's business model is based on removing inefficiencies and intermediate middlemen in the fruits and vegetables supply chain. It makes a considerable amount of money from the sale of fruits and vegetables and the sale of staples and other products.
When was Ninjacart started?
Ninjacart was founded in 2015.
What kind of company is Ninjacart?
Ninjacart startup is a popular fresh produce supply chain company.
Is Ninjacart a startup?
Yes, Ninjacart is a startup that is growing strong in the agritech space. In terms of scale, Ninjacart is probably the biggest Indian agritech startup. It is helping solve one of the toughest supply chain problems in the world by leveraging innovative technology.
Who is the owner of Ninjacart?
The Ninjakart ownership is really diverse. With 18.66% of shares, Tiger Global owns the largest portion of the company, followed by:
- Accel - 13.79%
- Others - 12.43%
- Flipkart - 12.29%
- Walmart - 12.29%
- ESOP + MSOP - 5.78%
- Sygenta VP - 4.16%
- Tanglin VP - 3.09%
- Thirukumaran Nagarajan - 2.95%
- Jo Hirao - 2.86%
- R Nilekani - 2.29%
- Nilekani Family Trust - 2.29%
- S Babu - 1.78%
- Vasudevan C - 1.78%
- Kartheeswaran KK - 1.78%
- Ashutosh Vikram - 1.78%
What is the turnover of Ninjacart?
Ninjacart's turnover was INR 755 cr in FY21 and is estimated to grow beyond the INR 1000 crore mark in FY22.
Is Ninjacart profitable?
No, ninjacart hasn't been profitable yet, but the company is reducing on its losses, which has become INR 375.7 crore in FY21 from INR 484.8 in FY20.
