From horticulture, floriculture and plantation crops to looking at fintech deals in companies focussed on farmers as beneficiaries, food processing companies that are sourcing directly from farmers and also farmer-focussed clean tech companies informed Mark Kahn, founding partner at Omnivore.
Chandigarh-based AgNext was cofounded by IIT Kharagpur alumni Taranjeet Singh Bhamra, Mrigank Sharad and Deepak Jaiswal in 2016. The startup was incubated at Science and Technology Entrepreneurs Park at IIT Kharagpur, and received seed funding and acceleration from a-IDEA, which is managed by the National Academy of Agricultural Research Management in Hyderabad. Impact venture fund Omnivore has made its second investment in agri-food sensing solutions startup AgNext Technologies. The investment is from Omnivore’s second fund Omnivore Partners India Fund 2 and the amount invested is undisclosed.
Omnivore, which had announced making the first close of its Fund II at $46 million earlier this year, is targetting the final close at $75 million. The fund, which is hoping to strike 16 to 20 deals from fund II, invests in ticket sizes ranging between $1 and $2 million. The deal also saw participation from Singapore-based high-networth individual Samir Kumar.
The startup collects spatial, temporal and spectral data to provide sensing solutions across the agriculture and food value chain. The firm has developed an integrated digital platform through which growers and food processors can improve their productivity, quality and profitability.
