Dairy food start-up Milk Mantra secures USD 10M in Debt from DFC

Dairy food start-up Milk Mantra announced on 19th June, 2020, that US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) has committed US$10 million for structured debt financing to the company.

DFC has also approved US$3,71,000 for technical assistance to support the company’s ethical milk sourcing programme and agriculture extension services as per a statement.

Setuka Partners LLP based in Washington DC, led by Aman Khanna, was the exclusive advisor to this transaction.
As India’s organized milk market is expected to reach $10 billion by 2025, private dairies are expected to play a key role. Over the last 8 years, Milk Mantra has sustainably impacted over 60,000 farmer families, supporting them to increase productivity by 31% and incomes by 70%.

The company said “The main focus of this investment will be to build out Milk Mantra’s digital financial services platform for its network of farmers. This platform will drive financial inclusion for farmers, especially women farmers. There are around 100 million dairy farmers in India with a significant proportion being women.”

Established in August 2009 by Srikumar Misra, the former director of Tetley, along with Rashima Misra, Milk Mantra started its operations in 2012. Its milk sourcing network has open to over 60,000 farmers. The start-up claimed that it has scaled its revenue from US$2 million in 2012-13 to US$32 million in 2019-20 and reaches more than 0.3 million households daily. The company operates in Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal.

Milk Mantra previously has secured US$25 million in VC funding over four rounds from investors like Neev Fund, Aavishkar VC and Eight Roads (previously Fidelity Growth Partners).

Co-founder of Milk Mantra, Srikumar Misra added “At Milk Mantra, we align with DFC’s focus on development impact. We have developed an ethical sourcing model that looks to revitalize rural economies, increase farmers’ yields and provide farmers, their families and their communities with growth opportunities while we scale up a mass-premium food brand that’s nourishing the lives of consumer families.”