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Agrotech, Company News, Finance, India, Start ups, Sustainability

The startup uses lignocellulosic agricultural residues as their raw material to produce advanced materials as alternatives to unsustainable incumbents.

Biomaterials startup altM announced that it has raised a USD 3.5 million Seed round led by Omnivore. Other investors include Theia Ventures, Thai Wah Ventures, Sanjiv Rangrass, Neha Mudaliar, Maninder Gulati from OYO, Mirik Gogri from Spectrum Impact, and Paula Mariwala from Aureolis Ventures.

altM is Omnivore’s first investment from its third fund, which recently had a first close at USD 150 million. This is also the firm’s fourth investment under its OmniX Bio initiative, which was setup in 2021 to back early-stage agrifood life science startups. 

altM aims to develop and manufacture scalable biomaterials to help large industries reduce their carbon footprints across their supply chains. The startup uses lignocellulosic agricultural residues as their raw material to produce advanced materials as alternatives to unsustainable incumbents. Given its sustainability potential and functional properties, lignocellulosic biomass offers a unique technological appeal to form a family of materials. 

altM, which is based in Bengaluru, was founded in 2022 by Apoorv Garg and Yugal Raj Jain, who met while working at Tesla in the US. Before altM, Apoorv served in supply chain and engineering leadership roles at Prometheus Fuels, Tesla, and Maruti Suzuki. He is an alumnus of the University of California, Berkeley (M.Eng.) and Delhi College of Engineering (B.Tech.). Yugal earlier worked at Tesla in engineering leadership roles, managing several factory and product launches. He is an alumnus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.Eng.) and Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology (B.E.). The team also includes Dr. Harshad Velankar with over 20 years of academic and industrial experience across India, the US, and South Africa. He previously led bioprocess research at HPCL, with prior stints at Praj Industries and Reliance Life Sciences. 

Apoorv Garg, CEO and Co-Founder at altM, said, “The scale-up of a technology from a laboratory bench to commercial production is not a trivial undertaking. Production scale-up is often the death valley for biotech startups. Our focus on go-to-market strategy, execution, and production scale-up will be the differentiator to most endeavors we see in the world of biomaterials today.”

Mark Kahn, Managing Partner at Omnivore, said, “With Apoorv and Yugal’s background in manufacturing excellence, altM’s entry into industrial alternative materials will hasten the global shift towards sustainability and circularity. Omnivore is very excited to be a part of their journey as we kick off our new fund.”

The startup uses lignocellulosic agricultural residues as

Company News, Finance, India, Start ups

Omnivore expects to make 25-30 new investments in Seed and Series A rounds of agritech startups, with initial cheque sizes ranging between $1 million and $5 million.

 Impact venture capital firm Omnivore is pleased to announce the first close of its third fund at $ 150 million. The Omnivore Agritech & Climate Sustainability Fund, which was launched in April 2022, will continue focusing on startups developing breakthrough technologies for agriculture, food, climate, and the rural economy.  First close investors include KfW, the Self-Reliant India (SRI) Fund, FMO, SIFEM, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Inclusive Agritech Facility, Louis Dreyfus Company Ventures, the Dutch Good Growth Fund (DGGF), the Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries (BIO), and Yara Growth Ventures.

With their third fund, Omnivore expects to make 25-30 new investments in Seed and Series A rounds of agritech startups and MSMEs, with initial cheque sizes ranging between $ 1 million and $ 5 million.  Key themes for new investments include agrifood life sciences, rural fintech, and climate-smart agriculture.

Over the past year, Omnivore has exited two agritech startups, delivering strong returns to its investors.  In July 2022, Omnivore sold its stake in aquaculture IoT startup Eruvaka to Nutreco, a global leader in animal nutrition and aquaculture, realizing the largest exit in Indian agritech to date.  Later, in March 2023, Omnivore sold its stake in precision sprayer manufacturer MITRA to farm machinery giant Mahindra.

According to Mark Kahn, Managing Partner at Omnivore, “The greatest risk and opportunity for Indian agriculture are the adverse effects of climate change. Our new fund will have a sharper focus on catalyzing climate action in agriculture by funding startups addressing climate mitigation and climate adaptation.”

Jinesh Shah,Managing Partner at Omnivore, noted, “We are grateful to our investors who share Omnivore’s vision of making India an agritech superpower which positively impacts the lives of smallholder farmers globally.”

Omnivore was founded in 2011 by Mark Kahn and Jinesh Shah to fund Indian startups building the future of agriculture and food systems.  Omnivore pioneered agritech investing in India, and over the past decade has backed over 40 startups which are making farming more profitable, resilient, sustainable, and climate-proof.  Omnivore raised $ 82 million for its second fund, which had a final close in April 2019. Some of Omnivore’s portfolio companies include DeHaat, Arya, Stellapps, Reshamandi, Ecozen, Aquaconnect, and Pixxel.

Omnivore expects to make 25-30 new investments

Company News, Finance, India, Machinery – Post-harvesting, Trade

 As part of this acquisition, Mahindra fully bought out Omnivore’s stake in the business. This marks the agritech fund’s second exit in a little over six months.

 Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.’s Farm Equipment Sector (FES) today signed definitive documents to increase its shareholding in MITRA Agro Equipments Private Limited (M.I.T.R.A) from the existing 47.33 per cent to 100 per cent, making it a wholly owned subsidiary of Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (M&M). As part of this acquisition, Mahindra fully bought out Omnivore’s stake in the business. This marks the agritech fund’s second exit in a little over six months. In August 2022, Omnivore exited aquatech startup Eruvaka after selling its stakes to Netherlands-based Nutreco.

Founded in 2012 by Devneet Bajaj, M.I.T.R.A is the Indian market leader in high precision orchard sprayers and a trusted brand for farmers growing fruits like grapes, pomegranate and oranges. The company has more than tripled its revenue from FY18 to FY22 and now employs over 200 people and has successfully started exporting its products globally. Post-acquisition by Mahindra, M.I.T.R.A plans to accelerate the expansion of its product portfolio alongside its network in India and overseas markets.

M.I.T.R.A was an early entrant in the then-nascent Indian agritech startup ecosystem. Omnivore, a venture capital firm that pioneered agritech investing in India, was one of its first institutional investors. M.I.T.R.A understood farmer needs and aspirations and built machines to automate labor-intensive farm jobs and save resources.

Dev Bajaj, Founder of M.I.T.R.A, said, “After eleven years of building a passionate team, more than ten innovative products, and a radical rural sales strategy, the journey of exiting M.I.T.R.A to M&M is gratifying. I am thankful to the M.I.T.R.A team and Omnivore for staunchly backing the vision of improving Indian agriculture with innovation.” Dev is now the Chief Strategy Officer of Dream Sports and heads one of India’s largest CVC funds, DreamCapital.

Mark Kahn, Managing Partner, Omnivore, said, “Ten years ago, Dev traded the American dream for a future building the Indian startup ecosystem, starting with M.I.T.R.A. Through Mahindra’s expansive dealer network, M.I.T.R. A’s cutting-edge technology will now be accessible to horticulture farmers across India. As the first institutional investor in the startup, this is a very proud moment for Omnivore and for agritech in India.”

Hemant Sikka, President of the Farm Equipment Sector, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., said, “Mahindra aims to grow its farm machinery business by 10x in 5 years and is making rapid progress towards achieving this goal. The additional share purchase in M.I.T.R.A would aid Mahindra’s growth and expansion into the growing horticulture market.”

 As part of this acquisition, Mahindra fully