Dairy.com, America’s Largest Independent Dairy Supply Chain Technology Provider, Acquires India-based Mr.Milkman

Dairy.com’s acquisition of Mr.Milkman is its first investment in India and the first dairy/agri tech acquisition in India by an international player

Dairy.com services 80% of the Dairy Foods’ Top 100 dairy companies with over 100 billion pounds of milk moving through its systems

Together, Dairy.com and Mr.Milkman will innovate and accelerate the development of last-mile delivery technology in the dairy business across India, North America and Europe as part of its suite of end-to-end supply chain solutions.

America’s leading dairy technology, services, and intelligence provider, Dairy.com, has made its first investment in India with the acquisition of Mr.Milkman, India's leading last-mile dairy supply chain SaaS platform. The company has acquired a 100% stake in Mr.Milkman to strengthen its integrated supply chain solution offerings for dairies worldwide.

Post acquisition, Dairy.com will invest in further enhancing the Mr.Milkman last-mile delivery platform and developing various solutions for the dairy industry in India. The investment will include nearly tripling the size of the staff to serve the dairy market.

The two companies will use their combined agribusiness technologies, development resources, and industry expertise to enable and innovate last-mile dairy supply chain solutions for markets in India and abroad.

(L to R) Ryan Mertes - Chief Solutions Officer Dairy.com, Samarth Setia, CEO & Co-founder, Mr. Milkman, and on right is Harjot Sachdeva - Operating Partner Banneker Partners

   
India is the world’s largest producer and consumer of milk and dairy products. Dairy is one of the most sizable agribusinesses in India, and the industry is valued at Rs. 11, 357 billion. Additionally, there is huge growth potential with value-added products such as cheese, yogurt, probiotic drinks, flavored milk, ice cream, and other products in the segment. Dairy.com and Mr.Milkman are positioned to thrive in India as their solutions are ideally suited to successfully supporting the country’s exponential rise of e-commerce and its increasing consumer demand for convenience, value, food safety, ease of payment, and product variety from the industry.

“Indian dairy sector and milk brands in India will need to employ technology at every level, right from procurement of milk to last delivery mile in order to grow and be successful. Milk brands in India and around the world operate on slim margins, and since milk prices have a cap, the only way to grow profits is to become more efficient – which can only happen through the implementation of technology,” said Mr.Milkman Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder Samarth Setia. “Our entire company is proud to be joining the talented Dairy.com team to accelerate the development of our last-mile delivery solution to meet the rising customer needs. We also look forward to providing some of the most advanced solutions Dairy.com has to offer to the milk brands in India."

Mr.Milkman's Dairy.com colleagues are equally enthusiastic about the future for their joint efforts, including Dairy.com Chief Executive Officer Scott Sexton. "We are very excited to invest in the continued success and incredible growth at Mr.Milkman,” he said. "Our entire global team is committed to developing innovative solutions that empower supply chains to feed a growing world, and Mr.Milkman is a natural addition to our AgTech solution portfolio."

Already used by over 60+ Indian dairy brands, Mr.Milkman enables dairy food product companies to efficiently manage multiple aspects of dairy distribution, supply chain, customer subscriptions, and delivery requests. In addition to being cost-effective to implement, Mr.Milkman is a pre-built alternative to food delivery aggregator apps and includes payment processing capabilities. Mr. Milkman works with Akshayakalpa, Gyan Dairy, Whyte Farms, Abis Dairy, Carnival Group, Fortune Dairy, Binsar Farms, Nutrimoo, Healthways, and many others in India.

In the future, the combined entity will look to optimize and digitize several areas of the agriculture supply chain in India, North America, and Europe. Dairy.com has extensive experience in multiple agribusiness areas and sectors, including first mile, plant operations, payments, quality control, risk management and transportation, and employs over 200 people worldwide.

About Dairy.com

Dairy.com is the leading provider of technology, services, and intelligence platforms to the dairy industry. Our mission is to enable the supply chain to feed a growing world. Every day, we help our clients deliver nutritious and delicious dairy products to consumers worldwide, connecting every stakeholder in the supply chain from farm to table.

About Mr.Milkman

Mr.Milkman is a state-of-the-art SaaS platform that empowers dairies and other industries to manage customer subscriptions and deliveries with unrivaled efficiency. From the farm all the way to the end consumer, the real-time analytics platform easily tracks all sales data, provides a complete performance overview, and enables informed business decisions.

Govt Launches Accelerator for Dairy Startups and Rs.15,000 Crore Animal Husbandry Fund

Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund (AHIDF) offers financial support to entrepreneurs, private companies, MSME and Farmers Producers Organizations (FPOs)

The Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying (DAHD), Government of India, with a view to provide dedicated focus towards promoting & facilitating investments in the Indian Dairy sector, has setup Dairy Investment Accelerator under its Investment Facilitation Cell. This Investment Accelerator is a cross functional team constituted to serve as the interface with investors. It shall provide support across the investment cycle:

• Offering specific inputs for evaluation of investment opportunities
• Addressing queries about application to govt. schemes
• Connecting with strategic partners
• Providing on-ground assistance with state departments & relevant authorities

Further, the Dairy Investment Accelerator will work with DAHD to organize a series of events with global & local industry participants and one-on-one discussions with the investors to understand their perspectives, facilitate direct interactions with government officials and connects with other players in the industry.

Dairy Investment Accelerator is also generating awareness among investors about Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development fund (AHIDF). AHIDF is one of the flagship schemes by DAHD, Government of India whereby Rs. 15,000 crore fund has been setup for offering financial support to entrepreneurs, private companies, MSME, Farmers Producers Organizations (FPOs), and Section 8 companies. 

Eligible entities can avail the benefits of the scheme to set up new units or expand existing units in areas of dairy processing & related value addition infrastructure, meat processing & related value addition infrastructure and Animal Feed Plant. The benefits available are:

• 3% interest subvention on loans
• 2-year moratorium with 6-year repayment period
• INR 750 Cr credit guarantee

The DAHD encourages all the private companies, individual entrepreneurs, and start-ups, who are interested in investing in Dairy sector, to reach out to the Dairy Investment Accelerator on dairy-accelerator@lsmgr.nic.in.

India is the largest milk producer contributing 23% of global milk production. Annual milk production in the country has grown by 6.4% (CAGR) in the past 5 years. Dairy is a high priority sector for Government of India due to its socio-economic significance. It is the single largest agricultural commodity contributing 5% of the national economy and employing 80 Mn+ farmers directly. Further, the country boasts a large domestic packaged dairy products of market worth Rs. 2.7-3.0 lakh crore witnessing a strong double-digit growth.

The market growth in Dairy requires support of significant infrastructure investment across processing, chilling, logistics, cattle feed etc. Further, lucrative untapped opportunities exist in areas such as value-added dairy products, organic/ farm fresh milk and exports. The Dairy sector has seen substantial foreign direct investment (FDI) constituting about 40% of FDIs Indian food sector. To facilitate the infrastructure growth, Central/ State Governments have released various incentives to attract investments in this sector.