Stellapps nets $26 mn from Blume, others to grow mooMark dairy business

Dairy-tech startup Stellapps Technologies has raised $26 million (about Rs 219 crore) in a mix of equity and debt in its Series C from existing investors such as Blume Ventures, Omnivore, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, IDH Farmfit Fund, 500 Startups and Blue Ashva Capital. 

The company also onboarded a new investor in Miledeep Capital in this round, it said in a statement.  

Stellapps raised the debt from the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), a development finance institution that has backed many Indian companies such as Husk Power, Kinara Capital, Vastu Housing Finance, and Northern Arc. 

In the past, Stellapps has also raised capital from Celesta Capital, Nutreco, Qualcomm Ventures, ABB Technology Ventures, Venture Highway, Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal, Beenext and Arun Seed. 

The company plans to use the fresh funds to accelerate its mooMark business, which is focused on contract manufacturing and private label dairy business of value-added dairy products which it claims are both sustainable and traceable.  

“This capital will help mooMark scale its value-added dairy product offering to its customers across India in a sustainable manner and strengthen its export segment going forward,” said Ranjith Mukundan, chief executive officer of Stellapps.  

Stellapps started by offering dairy-focused internet of things (IoT) solutions. However, over time, it expanded into contract manufacturing and private labeling of value-added dairy products under the “mooMark” brand. The company uses a low-capex and tech-powered approach to deliver these products to Indian and global customers. 

It claims that its tech stack improves traceability and sustainability, ensuring that mooMark products are traceable and help reduce the carbon footprint, especially at the farm level. This allows FMCG, direct-to-consumer as well as hospitality, restaurant and catering businesses to offer premium dairy products that support their Net Zero goals, it added. 

“DFC’s loan to mooMark Private Limited will support the company’s expansion into fully traceable value-added dairy product offerings and promote the inclusion of at least 200,000 smallholder dairy farmers in mooMark’s supply chain,” said James Polan, DFC’s vice president of health and agribusiness.  

The startup, which was incubated at IIT-Madras, works in over 42,000 villages. It claims to be enabling the movement of more than 14 million liters of milk every day.  

“By scaling mooMark, Stellapps continues to enhance supply chain transparency and reduce environmental impact, aligning with our mission to support sustainable agricultural practices and inclusive business models that improve smallholder farmer livelihoods,” said Som Toohey and Melinda Gróf, investment managers at IDH Farmfit Fund.