Stellapps, a Bengaluru-based dairytech incubator, has secured a total of $18 million in a Series C fundraising round organized by Nutreco, a company that specialises in animal nutrition and aquaculture.

The round was supported by Celesta Capital, ABB Technology Ventures and Qualcomm Ventures.

Stellapps is a dairy digitalized service provider that helps clients in the dairy industry improve productivity and quality as well as provide traceability across the supply chain. The start-up plans on using the funds to scale its traceability network and extend its digital footprint.

Stellapps is dairy digitalization service providers that assist clients enhance productivity and quality while also ensuring traceability throughout the supply chain. The funding will be used to expand the digital footprint and start-up's traceability network.

Ranjith Mukundan, CEO of Stellapps, “Our vision is to unlock unprecedented value across the dairy supply chain for all stakeholders, especially smallholder farmers. We are on a mission to shift the Indian smallholder farmers into the agripreneur orbit by enhancing productivity, improving quality, and enabling traceability through our smartMoo solutions.”

Nutreco is a Dutch international organisation that specialises in animal nutrition and aquafeed. It employs over 12,000 people in 37 countries.

India is the world's foremost producer of milk and the world's largest single agricultural product, accounting for 4% of the country's GDP. For the past five years, the industry has risen at a rate of 12% per year.

However, industry estimates show that 48% of milk produced is either produced at the producer level (in farming homes) or marketed directly to rural customers.

Furthermore, the organised sector produces only 1,080 lakh kg of the country's 3,210 lakh kg of milk per day (34 %), while the unorganised sector produces 2,130 lakh kg (66 %). Cooperatives and private firms have about equal market share in the organised sector.

Dairy.com, based in the United States, entered the Indian market earlier this month with the acquisition of Mr. Milkman, a Gurugram-based SaaS business that is also active in dairy manufacturing and the dairy supply chain.