Mumbai-based startup Tessol, which provides energy-efficient and fuel-saving refrigeration technologies for cold chain storage and logistics, has raised an undisclosed amount in a bridge round from equity crowdfunding platform 1Crowd.
The firm said in a statement that existing investors Infuse Ventures and Ankur Capital had also participated in the round.
Tessol said it will use the fresh capital to strengthen its existing product portfolio apart from investing in some products that were under development.
Owned and operated by Thermal Energy Service Solutions Pvt. Ltd, Tessol was founded by Rajat Gupta, an Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi and Harvard University graduate, in 2013.
Its thermal energy-based storage solutions have applications across sectors such as dairy, seafood, confectionery, poultry, among others. Tessol claims to have a pan-India service network.
“There are huge gaps in the Indian food supply chain and while there are several cold chain products available in the market, there is a dearth of viable solutions,” said Rajat Gupta, Tessol’s founder and chief executive officer.
In November 2016, Infuse Ventures along with Ankur Capital had invested an undisclosed amount as part of Tessol's Series A funding round.
Investors
Launched in 2015 as a crowdfunding platform, 1Crowd marked the first close of its debut angel fund at Rs 23 crore ($3.5 million) in March this year.
The fund, which is registered with market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), has a target corpus of Rs 75 crore including a greenshoe option of Rs 25 crore. The fund co-invests with the equity crowdfunding platform.
Infuse Ventures is an early-stage sustainability and clean-tech fund associated with IIM Ahmedabad’s tech incubator Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE).
Besides CIIE, Infuse is backed by Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Technology Development Board, IFC, BP, Godrej Industries, ICICI Bank, SIDBI, Bank of India and Union Bank.
Earlier this month, VCCircle reported that 1Crowd and Infuse Ventures had co-invested in Silvan Innovation Labs Pvt. Ltd, which provides home automation solutions.
Ankur Capital is an early-stage venture capital fund that focuses on seed-stage investments in agritech, food, healthcare, skill development and education among others.
In April this year, it invested in medical herbs supplier Carmel Organics Pvt. Ltd.