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Kerala-based agritech start-up Greenikk, which launched the country’s first full-stack supply chain connecting banana cultivators, wholesalers, exporters and B2B buyers on a single platform, has raised ₹5.04 crore in pre-seed funding from a string of institutional funders, angel investors and serial entrepreneurs from within the country and abroad.
Launched in January 2020, Greenikk has built enablement centres in major banana producing agri-belts in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. It provides banana farmers with various kinds of support such as finance, seeds, crop advisory, insurance coverage, agri inputs and market-connect, covering the entire gamut of production and marketing inside the country and outside. Of the pre-funds raised, ₹3.34 crore will be in equity and the rest in debt, said Fariq Naushad and Previn Jacob, co-founders of the start-up that was incubated at Indigram Labs, Delhi.
9 Unicorn Ventures leads
These funds have come from lead investor 9 Unicorn Ventures; Kerala-based angel group Smart Spark Ventures; Manish Modi who heads Mauritius-based Mastermind Capital Ventures and is invested in several agritech start-ups and also sits on the investment committee of Venture Catalysts; Saurabh Agarwal and Mayank Tiwari, founders of Reshamandi that has so far raised $40 million; and Arjun Pillai, who sits on the board of the Nasdaq-listed Zoom Info.
The list of funders for the start-up that had earlier secured grant from Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (Birac) also includes 1.0 Ventures, a US-based angel group with a mix of founders and professionals who invest into early-stage technology start-ups; Amit Antony Alex, former Country Director, Upaya Social Ventures; serial entrepreneur Shiv Shankar; and Aman Tekriwal (Maxar VC) with a large number of startup investments under his belt.
Next fund raise plan
Among other investors are the IIM-Ahmedabad accelerator Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship, Suresh Aravind, former Worldwide Vice-President, Johnson & Johnson; and Sriram Seshadri, a US-based serial entrepreneur. The Greenikk co-founders said the funds will be mainly to used to establish model enablement centres, gain traction and build a scalable business model as also for hiring. “We plan to hit ₹100 crore in annual recurring revenue (ARR) by FY23. The next fund raise proposes to attract ₹50 crore from top venture capital funds in the country, some of whom have already made commitments for investment,” they pointed out.
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