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HomePosts Tagged "OMNIVORE" (Page 2)
Agrotech, Company News, Finance, India, Start ups

The round was led by DSG Consumer Partners and Alkemi Growth Capital alongside existing investors Omnivore, Insitor Partners, and other angel investors.

Farmley, a full-stack nuts & dry fruits brand, has raised USD 6 million in Series A funding. The round was led by DSG Consumer Partners and Alkemi Growth Capital alongside existing investors Omnivore, Insitor Partners, and other angel investors.

The startup was founded in 2017 by IIT graduates Akash Sharma and Abhishek Agarwal. Farmley has built deep backend linkages over the years with domestic as well as international farming communities to source the highest quality of nuts and dry fruits. With deep customer insights and years of R&D, it has also developed 5 unique processing units in India. This has enabled Farmley to produce premium quality nuts and dry fruits, and to provide them at accessible price points to its consumers. The company has raised a prior seed round of USD 2 million in 2020 from Omnivore and Insitor.

In the last 18 months, Farmley has scaled its revenues by 10x to become one of the leading players in this category. They have omnichannel distribution, and their products are available on all leading e-commerce and quick commerce platforms alongside retail stores across the top 20 Indian cities. They are also available in select international markets including the US, Middle East, and Australia. Farmley plans to utilize the funds for channel expansion, brand building, and team building.

Akash Sharma & Abhishek Agarwal, Co-founders of Farmley, said, “Farmley is a consumer-centric brand at heart. We are here to become a globally loved brand, born in India and being consumer-first in our approach is the only way to achieve it.”

Hariharan Premkumar, Head of India at DSG Consumer Partners, commented, “We are excited to partner with Akash and Abhishek on their mission to build India’s most loved dry fruits and nuts brand with the best quality products. This segment is large and the unorganized market makes up 95% of the market. The products from the unorganized market suffer from quality, hygiene, and adulteration issues. The full backward integration at Farmley ensures premium quality produce and innovative product launches such as India’s first makhana pasta. The company is on a strong growth trajectory and the founders have built a stellar team with laser-focus on customer pain points.”

Dr Mansi Aggarwal, Partner at Alkemi Growth Capital, observed, “ Farmley is one of the fastest-growing brands in this segment and the team at the helm has grown the company to an impressive scale while building a sustainable supply chain’’

The round was led by DSG Consumer

Acquaculture, Company News, Finance, Start ups

Nutreco’s acquisition of Eruvaka will enable Skretting, its aquaculture business, to deliver on-farm software and smart equipment to shrimp farmers globally.

 Agritech-focused venture capital firm Omnivore announced the sale of Eruvaka to Nutreco , delivering the largest exit to date in Indian agritech.  Based in Vijayawada, Eruvaka develops cloud-based aquaculture pond management solutions, including real-time monitoring and smart feeders. Nutreco, a global leader in animal nutrition and aquaculture, acquired a majority stake in Eruvaka. Nutreco’s acquisition of Eruvaka will enable Skretting, its aquaculture business, to deliver on-farm software and smart equipment to shrimp farmers globally.

Omnivore originally invested in Eruvaka in 2013, one year after the startup was launched by Sreeram Raavi, an engineer with prior work experience in semiconductors. A true agritech pioneer, Raavi recognized that shrimp farmers globally struggled with pond management and began building IoT solutions to radically improve their profitability. Within a few years, this homegrown Andhra Pradesh startup discovered a demand for its technology solutions across multiple geographies, including Ecuador, Honduras, and Mexico. Eruvaka has been profitable since FY2018-19 and has delivered 168.5 per cent compound annual revenue growth since FY2017-18.

Commenting on the exit, Sreeram Raavi, Founder of Eruvaka said, “I am extremely grateful to my incredible team in Vijayawada, who believed in the vision and persevered to make Eruvaka a global leader in precision aquaculture technology. We are thankful to Omnivore for believing in us and guiding Eruvaka to this moment. I have absolute faith that Eruvaka will thrive under the leadership of Nutreco, bringing digitization and sustainability to aquaculture farms across the world.”

Mark Kahn, Managing Partner at Omnivore, also noted, “Eruvaka is an amazing example of Make in India, delivering cutting edge agritech solutions to aquaculture farmers globally. With Nutreco acquiring Eruvaka, the Indian agritech ecosystem has seen its first large exit, and many more will follow in the coming years. This is a very proud moment for Omnivore, for Eruvaka,  and for agritech in India.”

Nutreco CEO Fulco van Lede says, “We are grateful to everyone whose expertise and vision brought Eruvaka to where it is today. In particular, the company’s dedicated employees, its most valuable asset; its founder Sreeram Ravi, who not only invented the original concept but whose vision and drive brought it successfully to market; and aqua/agritech-focused venture capital firm Omnivore, whose early belief and investment in the company were instrumental to its growth. We are looking forward to further developing and growing Eruvaka together with its great team.”

Nutreco’s acquisition of Eruvaka will enable Skretting,

Finance, Machinery - Pre-harvesting, Machinery – Post-harvesting

Tractor Junction plans to use the funding from Info Edge Ventures and Omnivore for launching physical stores for used tractor transactions across Northern India.

India’s leading rural vehicle marketplace, Tractor Junction, announced today that it has raised a USD 5.7 million Seed round co-led by Info Edge Ventures and Omnivore. Existing investors AgFunder GROW Impact Fund and Rockstart AgriFood Fund also participated in the round, alongside angels including Vikram Chopra & Mehul Agrawal – the co-founders of Cars24, Vellayan Subbiah & Arun Venkatachalam from the Murugappa Group, and Sanjiv Rangrass.

Tractor Junction is India’s largest digital marketplace to buy, sell, finance, and insure new and used tractors, farm equipment, and rural commercial vehicles. Despite the steady pace of agricultural mechanization, Indian farmers who want to buy rural vehicles have to navigate information opacity, unfair pricing, and a lack of trusted sources for smooth transactions. Dealers also struggle to reach their target customers, appropriately price used vehicles, and liquidate exchange inventory. Tractor Junction is revolutionizing the rural vehicle space by providing necessary information and vetted reviews on farm machinery, enabling users to compare shortlisted options, and bringing transparency in pricing.

Based in Noida, Tractor Junction was founded in 2019 by Animesh Agarwal, Rajat Gupta, and Shivani Gupta. Animesh, an IIM Shillong alumnus, was previously leading the North India operations of Cars24, and earlier in his career worked for Mahindra’s farm equipment business across sales, channel development, digitisation, and strategy roles. 

 In December 2021, Tractor Junction acquired rival marketplace TractorGuru (the second-largest farm machinery portal), further strengthening its leadership in this space. Tractor Junction plans to use this funding for talent acquisition, development of financial services, and launching physical stores for used tractor transactions across northern India.

Rajat Gupta, Co-Founder of Tractor Junction, said, “The rural vehicle ecosystem is at the cusp of a digital revolution and our team at Tractor Junction are excited to tackle the opportunity that lies ahead. We are humbled to have the confidence of marquee investors like Info Edge and Omnivore who bring vast experience of building scalable businesses.”

Kitty Agarwal, Partner at Info Edge Ventures, said, “The used tractor and farm equipment market is highly unorganized with a lack of established sales channels. As a result, farmers struggle with access to quality information and inventory for a relatively high value purchase.  Tractor Junction is bringing convenience, transparency, and affordability to the farm equipment buying process, thus empowering farmers and creating a winning ecosystem for all stakeholders.”

Jinesh Shah, the Managing Partner of Omnivore, observed, “By clearing the haze of information asymmetry, Tractor Junction is empowering smallholder farmers with access to valuable data and affordable high-quality farm vehicles. Tractor Junction will have a far-reaching impact on farmer profitability, and we at Omnivore are thrilled to support this journey.”

Tractor Junction plans to use the funding

Agrotech, Finance

The new fund will continue to invest in early-stage start-ups developing breakthrough technologies for agriculture, food, climate, and the rural economy

Omnivore, India’s leading agritech venture capital firm, announced that the launch of its third fund, with a target corpus of $130 million (Rs 1000 crore). The new fund will continue to invest in early-stage start-ups developing breakthrough technologies for agriculture, food, climate, and the rural economy. Omnivore generally invests in Seed, Pre-Series A, and Series A rounds, with follow-on capital for future growth. 

Originally founded by Jinesh Shah and Mark Kahn in 2010, Omnivore pioneered agritech investing in India, and over the past decade has backed over 35 start-ups which are making farming more profitable, resilient, sustainable, and climate-proof.  Omnivore is targeting a first close of the new fund by September 2022 and a final close by June 2023.  With this new fund, Omnivore expects to make 25 to 30 new investments over the next four years, continuing to fund entrepreneurs building the future of Indian agriculture and food systems. 

Omnivore Fund 3 will have a sharper focus on catalysing climate action in agriculture, backing start-ups addressing both climate mitigation (reducing India’s GHG emissions) and climate adaptation/resilience (securing a future for India’s farmers).  Along these lines, earlier this year, Omnivore launched the OmniX Bio initiative to provide additional support to agrifood life science startups, initially targeting the fields of agricultural biotechnology, novel farming systems, bioenergy and biomaterials, as well as innovative foods, including alternative protein.  With the new fund, Omnivore aims to deepen the reach and impact of OmniX Bio, and help reboot the agrifood life sciences ecosystem in India.

Mark Kahn, Managing Partner of Omnivore, stated, “For over a decade now, we have been a part of the evolution of the agritech ecosystem in India. Through Omnivore’s investments, we have touched the lives of almost 7 million smallholder farmers, improving their profitability and resilience, while creating value for our investors.  We believe agritech is just getting started, and we look forward to supporting a new generation of entrepreneurs building a future for rural India.”

The new fund will continue to invest

Agrotech, Finance

Krishify plans to use this round for accelerating pan-India growth and to further refine the technology for an enhanced user experience in the agriverse

Rural social network Krishify has closed $6.2 million in Pre-Series A funding with the additional participation of agritech VC fund Omnivore alongside existing investors Ankur Capital, Omidyar Network India, and Orios Venture Partners. Krishify had already raised $2.7 million in August 2021 and has now closed the Pre-Series A round with an additional $3.5 million in funding.

Krishify plans to use this round for accelerating pan-India growth and to further refine the technology for an enhanced user experience in the agriverse. Krishify is also accelerating monetization on the network via advertising, lead generation, and marketing services for companies targeting rural consumers. 

Commenting on the investment, Rajesh Ranjan, Co-Founder of Krishify, said, “We are excited to partner with Omnivore in our journey to build India’s agriverse. More and more Indian farmers are connecting via Krishify every day, as the network breaks down geographic barriers and helps people interact to access knowledge and do business. We recently met a third-generation guava farmer in Rajasthan who was selling record numbers of guava saplings to farmers across Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra who only could have ever discovered him through the Krishify app.”

Mark Kahn, Managing Partner, Omnivore, also noted, “Rising smartphone penetration in rural India has created an opportunity to build a farmer-centric social network for India’s 130 million cultivators and their families, a total population of over 600 million. Krishify is building a content-centric agriverse to help farmers and rural communities realise greater success and joy through peer-to-peer engagement.”

Krishify plans to use this round for

Finance

OmniX Bio will provide venture funding, mentorship from global agrifood life sciences leaders, institutional partnerships and business development support to access domestic and export sales channels  

Omnivore announced today the launch of its OmniX Bio initiative to back early stage agrifood life science startups. The program will support Indian entrepreneurs who are working in agricultural biotechnology, novel farming systems, bioenergy and biomaterials, as well as innovative foods, including alternative protein. 

 Agrifood life sciences can play a critical role in tackling both climate mitigation (reducing India’s GHG emissions) and climate adaptation (securing a future for India’s farmers), as well as other agricultural sustainability challenges. 

OmniX Bio will provide venture funding, mentorship from global agrifood life sciences leaders, institutional partnerships, and business development support to access domestic and export sales channels. While all members of the Omnivore team will support OmniX Bio, a PhD life scientist will join the investment team in 2022 to oversee the initiative and help develop the agrifood life sciences ecosystem across India.

 Omnivore also disclosed the first investment under the OmniX Bio initiative: BioPrime, which is developing biological crop inputs that enhance yields without harming the environment or the health of farmers and consumers.  The BioPrime team has spent the past few years building SNIPR (Smart Nanomolecules Induced Physiological Response) and BIONEXUS. SNIPR is a discovery platform which identifies innate immunity or natural defence mechanisms in plants, curates unique traits, and delivers tailored crop input formulations. BIONEXUS is India’s largest trait modifying, plant-associated microbe collection. Changes in the diversity of microbiota can confer plants acquired traits like drought tolerance, disease resistance, and enhanced yields, to name a few.

Renuka Diwan, Co-Founder and CEO of BioPrime, said, “At BioPrime we are focusing on discovering fundamental aspects of plant communication, identifying new biomolecules and new modes of modulating plant responses. SNIPR and BIONEXUS enable BioPrime to develop new biologicals and radically improve existing products at a fraction of cost and time.”

Mark Kahn, Managing Partner of Omnivore, commented, “We are excited to launch OmniX Bio to help reboot the agrifood life sciences ecosystem in India. Technological advances in this space can effectively solve some of the toughest challenges in Indian agriculture. We hope to see more entrepreneurs like the BioPrime team step up to the challenge and help change the course of Indian agriculture for the better.”

OmniX Bio will provide venture funding, mentorship