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Full-stack horticulture start-up Fasal has raised ₹100 crore in its Series-A funding round led by TDK Ventures and British International Investment (BII), the United Kingdom’s development finance institution and impact investor, with contributions from the ITI Growth Opportunities Fund, Navam Capital, and Aureolis Ventures.
The round also saw participation from all existing investors, including 3one4 Capital, Omnivore, Wavemaker Partners, Genting Ventures, and The Yield Labs Asia Pacific.
According to the start-up, the financing round provides further ammunition to the company in its mission to transform the $228 billion Indian horticulture industry with its full-stack platform anchored on top of its patented Internet of Things (IoT) crop intelligence technology and expand further to Southeast Asia.
Since the commercialisation of its technology, it claims to have worked with horticulture farmers spanning more than 75,000 acres growing crops like grapes, pomegranates, bananas, apples, chilli, cardamom, etc. by enabling them to grow more and grow better with its patented IoT-crop intelligence technology.
Moreover, it has gone deeper into the value chain by building technology to predict the exact harvesting time, yield, and tentative quality and is utilising this intelligence to bring this sustainably grown, traceable, and high-quality produce to consumers via its B2B brand.
Shailendra Tiwari, Founder/CEO of Fasal, mentioned, “We are delighted to welcome our new investors to the Fasal Family, with TDK Ventures and British International Investments (BII) co-leading this round. Their participation strongly validates the depth of innovation in our patented IoT-crop intelligence technology and its impact on making the horticulture value chain resilient to climate change and carbon-negative.”
With this capital infusion, we plan to expand its presence from 75,000 acres to 500,000 acres and enable the technology to deliver more to our farmers by providing them access to sustainable crop inputs, farm-level crop insurance, and working capital at lower interest rates, he added.
“The funds will amplify our exclusive farm IoT-Crop intelligence technology, reshaping the farming landscape. We envision a data-driven behavioral change where each byte contributes to sculpting the future of agriculture,” explained Ananda Verma, founder of Fasal.
Founded in 2018, Fasal is a precision horticulture pioneer that leverages AI, crop science, and IOT to provide farm-level, crop-specific, and crop-stage-specific intelligence enabling resource optimisation (water, pesticides, and more) and higher farm productivity while procuring high-quality, traceable produce for an end-to-end optimised value chain play.
Emphasising the crucial role of climate-smart solutions in empowering horticulture farmers to tackle the adverse impacts of climate change, Srini Nagarajan, Managing Director and Head of Asia for BII, added, “Providing climate finance is a core part of our strategy in India and Southeast Asia. By supporting the development of the company’s climate-smart solutions, we will be able to reach more smallholder horticulture farmers.”
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