Agritech start-up Eeki Foods has raised Series A funding of $6.5 million from investors led by General Catalyst (GC). Other key investors who participated in the round include Avaana Capital, Better Capital, Irving Fain, CEO & Founder of Bowery Farming, Subbu Palaniappan, Director & Head of Amazon Prime India; Srinivas Narayanan, former VP Engg at Facebook, Akhil Gupta and Amit Kumar Agarwal, Co-founders of NoBroker.com.

Eeki Foods’ vision is a world free from malnutrition and deficiencies in which nutritious residue-free vegetables are affordable and accessible to everyone. They are setting up large-scale, climate-proof farms equipped with proprietary growing chambers that allow low-cost production of high-quality vegetables.

“The fresh funds will be used to scale Eeki to hundreds of acres. This coming year, we will focus on building the team, technology and organisational scale to make this growth a reality. We are actively looking to establish partnerships with corporates, high net-worth individuals, and other retail farmers in Rajasthan, Delhi-NCR, and Maharashtra to build such farms across the country,” said Abhay Singh, CEO and Co-Founder and Amit Kumar, COO and Co-Founder of Eeki Foods.

Climate-control tech

Eeki Foods’ technology enables the farm’s climate to be controlled, allowing vegetables to be grown all year without being affected by seasonal variations. Their patent-pending IoT control mechanism deployed on farms, makes operations more robust, cost-effective, and less reliant on manual labour. Eeki’s farms provide 300 per cent more yield on any barren or unused land at 50 per cent of the growing cost, using 80 per cent less water, the start-up claimed.

“Eeki’s innovative, India-centric growing system as well as its unique business model are making a meaningful difference in the lives and livelihoods of farming partners and consumers,” said Anand Chandrasekaran, Partner at General Catalyst. “Amit and Abhay are building an important company with responsible innovation at the core. We at GC are thrilled to invest in Eeki as part of the fund’s focus in India as they execute on their mission to empower farmers and to bring fresh vegetables to the masses.”

“We, at Avaana, are delighted to be early believers and support Eeki’s vision to create climate-resilient agricultural systems. Eeki’s patent-pending technology revolutionises controlled environment agriculture, producing high-quality staple vegetables at affordable prices. We are proud to participate in the team’s journey as investors, and are excited about Eeki building the future of farming,” said Anjali Bansal, Avaana Capital.

With farms in Rangpur, Bhilwara, Talera ,Nanta and Panipat, Eeki Foods aims to minimise price fluctuations of market staples such as cucumber, chillies, and tomatoes, while keeping the produce nutritious and residue-free.

Published on April 20, 2022