Bijak

Bijak is a B2B trade platform for the agricultural sector in India that enables traders, wholesalers
and food processors to keep a ledger of their transactions, access transparent pricing, optimise
logistics and improve their working capital cycles.

Bijak brings accountability and transparency in the agricultural value chain through a
buyer/seller rating system that’s based on real time transaction data. Users on the platform can
leverage those ratings to identify and trade with reliable counterparts. Bijak’s approach of
enabling the existing players in the value chain underscores the company’s vision to be a trusted
partner of the agriculture commerce community.

Most commodity traders refer to invoice details as Bijak and that is where the app derives its
name from. The app, which is highly customised for agriculture commodity traders, is available
in a number of local languages and uses the same terminology that’s typically used in major
wholesale markets (known as mandis).

Bijak was founded in April 2019 by Nukul Upadhye, Mahesh Jakhotia, Jitender Bedwal, Daya
Rai, and Nikhil Tripathi who together, have deep experience spanning in Agri-Tech, finance,
consulting and SaaS firms.

Bijak has raised 2.5Mn USD as part of seed funding from Sequoia’s SurgeAhead, Omidyar
Network, Omnivore and other angel investors. Bijak is a developer of B2B platform for
agricultural commodities that gives buyers and sellers better prices, increased working capital
and optimized logistics. Bijak is a business-to-business trade platform for the agricultural sector
in India that enables traders, wholesalers, and food processors to keep a ledger of their
transactions, access transparent pricing, optimize logistics, and improve their working capital
cycles.

Bijak is aiming to build a first-of-its-kind private online marketplace that can help market
discoverability, earn a fair price, create accountability and trust and provide services like credit
and logistics to a market that is highly underserved.
Features

 Network: Access the largest network of reliable and trustworthy buyers/suppliers

 Alerts & Reminders: Get instant alerts, pending amount notifications and facility to
send payment reminders

 Payments: Make quick, safe and real time payments to your partners – anytime from
anywhere

 Working Capital: Quick and real time disbursal of loans to buyers, enabling immediate
payment to suppliers

 Alerts: Bookkeeping: Get all transaction details and related documents on your mobile

 Ratings: Make informed trade decisions with accurate trade participant ratings that
enhance accountability

Funding

Bijak has raised over USD 2.5 million (about Rs 18 crore) from various investors, including
Omnivore and Omidyar Network India, for expansion of its business.
Bijak Timeline
Key Statistics

Their collaborative approach allows them to create impact at a massive scale

Bijak has approved the allotment of 2591 Series A CCPS at an issue price of  Rs 3,50,324 each
to raise Rs 90.76 crore from the investors, as per the company’s fresh regulatory filings. 

According to Entrackr’s calculation, the valuation of the company saw a 7.6X jump from Rs 80
crore in its seed round to Rs 613 crore or $82 million in the current round. Following the
investment, the promoters have diluted 10.51% of their holding in this round and now control
57.12% of the stake.

Launched a year ago, Bijak is the brainchild of  Nukul Upadhye, Mahesh Jakhotia, Jitender
Bedwal, Daya Rai and Nikhil Tripathi. With its presence in over 22 states including
Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Bihar and Uttarakhand, Bijak covers 550
regions across the country and deals in more than 80 commodities.

A B2B trade platform for the agricultural sector, Bijak enables traders, wholesalers and food
processors to keep a ledger of their transactions, access transparent pricing, optimize logistics
and improve their working capital cycles.
Bijak and COVID-19

Bijak connected with NGOs to supply onions. In the crisis situations of COVID-19, we were
able to provide income to our farmers and were also able to serve people in need. We are happy
to be registered with Bijak as a certified supplier.

There is also a drastic shift in the way agricultural trade is happening a lot of
farmers/FPOs/traders are transacting online or over a phone call because physical visits are
impossible. There has been a significant push from the government as well to improve the E-
NAM infrastructure to enable trade to occur remotely. Several initiatives such as an option to
undertake direct trade without having to be present in Mandis, online quality control, Farmer and
FPO training modules, and linking warehouse receipts to the E-NAM portal have been launched
during the lockdown period. As a result, we have seen more and more traders/farmers adopt
online platforms, and this is where Bijak helps find reliable buyers & suppliers in the agriculture
ecosystem.

Bijak has recently launched a nationwide campaign called Together Against COVID to supply
essential commodities to NGOs. Bijak can deliver bulk quantities of essential commodities in
relatively quick time to any metropolitan city in India. Bijak’s supply chain is closely linked with
agriculture traders and transporters and is not impacted due to the lockdown regulations. Bijak
has launched a web platform (together.bijak.in) for charitable organizations to raise demands
and suppliers (farmers, FPOs, or traders) to post the availability of stocks. Bijak will match
charitable organizations to suppliers and bridge the supply-demand gap.

Network:
Overcoming issues:

Bijak understands the current issues of agricultural sector and has overcome them by means. Bijak has
resolved following necessary issues.

 Lack of trust and accountability

 Difficult free trade

 Sub-optimal trade decisions

Intuitive app:

Bijak is a friendly interface and is easy to use. The most common functions are presented in one menu
rather than buried in multiple menus with rigid hierarchies that make sense.