US based DFC committed RS 76 Crores to Milk Mantra

Former director of Tetley, Srikumar Misra and Rashima Misra founded Milk Mantra in 2009. The compnay started its operations in 2012. The company collects milk from around 60,000 farmers. The turnover of the company is around Rs 220 crores with a customer base of close to 300000 on daily basis. The company operates in the states of Odisha, West Bengal and Jharkhand. Milk Mantra on Friday said US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) has committed USD 10 million. This commitment is for structured debt financing to the company. DFC has also approved Rs 2.8 crores for company’s agriculture extension services and ethical milk sourcing programme.

The main focus of this would be to build Milk Mantra’s digital financial services platform for its network of farmers. This platform will drive financial inclusion for women farmers. There are nearly 100 million dairy farmers in India with a significant proportion being women.

Milk Mantra has already raised USD 25 million in venture capital funding over four rounds. Eight Roads (previously Fidelity Growth Partners), Neev Fund, and Aavishkar VC are amongst the initial investors. In COVID times, this funding will act as a silver lining for other private dairy players.