TraceX Technologies, a blockchain powered agritech platform that enhances supply chain traceability and transparency, has announced it has raised $1 million in pre-Series A funding led by NABARD backed NABVENTURES Fund.
The round also saw participation from Paipal Ventures, an early stage family office investment fund, and from angel investor Sunil Kumar.
The newly-raised capital will be used towards scaling up operations across geographies in India and in international markets, enhancing the technology platform, foraying into other value chains and for building high performance teams across functions.
Founded in 2019 by Srivatsa Sreenivasarao and Anil Nadig, TraceX harnesses the power of blockchain technology to build clean, transparent, and traceable supply chains across the food and agriculture ecosystem, according to a press statement.
A report published by Markets and Markets indicates that the food traceability market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 9.1 percent with its estimated value reaching $26.1 Billion by 2025. Increasing consumer awareness on safe food products, growing demand for healthy and ethically sourced products, and focus on transparency are some of the reasons behind this demand.
Commenting on the fundraise, Anil Nadig, Co-Founder, TraceX, said, “At TraceX, we believe that transparency builds trust and we are on a mission to create credible, connected and sustainable supply chains for the world. We are thrilled to have NABVENTURES join us on our journey. Their tremendous experience in the field of food and agriculture will help us accelerate our vision of building a globally connected food network on blockchain.”
Commenting on the future of food traceability, Dr G R Chintala, Chairman, NABARD and NABVENTURES, said, “Traceability solutions empower farmers to follow sustainable climate resilient practices ensuring continuous productivity.”
TraceX’s SaaS platform integrates with the existing digital infrastructure in the supply chains and brings all the stakeholders onto the blockchain network, ensuring a single source of truth from farm to fork. In addition to food safety and operational efficiency, TraceX also helps companies build sustainable supply chains for the future.
Speaking about the investment, Rajesh Ranjan, CEO, NABVENTURES, said, “A typical agri-food supply chain is unorganized, and the data is stored in silos. This results in a disconnected supply chain, limited interoperability and compromised transparency across transactions. Given the increasing demand for providing credibility to claims made by brands on sustainable sourcing, food handling and other aspects, TraceX is the right platform - neutral, independent, and a credible solution for building traceable supply chains from farm to fork. It organizes the entire supply chain by providing connected, secured, auditable and verifiable information via blockchain.”
TraceX currently has a B2B SaaS subscription model where it works with companies across livestock, poultry, seafood, and agri supply chains.
Commenting on the company’s future plans, Srivatsa Sreenivasarao, CEO and Co-Founder, said, "We are working towards further enhancing our product by leveraging Asset Tokenization (NFTs), AI, ML, IoT to provide digital empowerment to all the participants in the supply chain. Our aim is to harness the power of Web3 technologies to build a large distributed autonomous supply chain network for food and agriculture businesses. Over the next few months, we plan to extend our offerings to encompass carbon offsets and climate action goals of companies. We also plan to aggressively scale up operations in international geographies.”
