Wolkus Technology Solutions Pvt. Ltd, which operates agritech startup Fasal, said Friday it has raised $12 million (Rs 100 crore) in a Series A funding round led by US-based venture capital firm TDK Ventures and British International Investment (BII), the United Kingdom’s development finance institution.
The round also saw participation from new investors ITI Growth Opportunities Fund, Navam Capital and Aureolis Ventures as well as all existing investors including 3one4 Capital, Omnivore, Wavemaker Partners, Genting Ventures, and The Yield Labs Asia Pacific.
“With this capital infusion, we plan to expand Fasal’s presence from 75,000 acres to 500,000 acres and enable our 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,” said Shailendra Tiwari, co-founder and chief executive officer, Fasal.
The Bengaluru-based startup will also strengthen its business-to-business (B2B) brand Fasal Fresh, which procures farm produce from farmers while improving the supply chain as well.
Founded in 2018 by Tiwari and Ananda Prakash Verma, Fasal is an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered IoT-SaaS platform for horticulture. It captures real-time data on growing conditions from on-farm sensors and delivers farm-specific, actionable advisories to farmers via mobiles in vernacular languages.
“These funds will improve our exclusive farm IoT-Crop intelligence technology," added Verma, co-founder, Fasal.
In 2021, Fasal had raised $4 million in a pre-Series A funding round led by 3one4 Capital. Other investors who took part in the round included Omnivore, Wavemaker Partners, Genting Ventures (Malaysia), The Yield Lab Asia-Pacific, Antares Investments, and Sandeep Singhal of Nexus Venture Partners.
Meanwhile, BII has investments in over 1,470 businesses across 65 countries and total assets of £8.1 billion. Over the 2022-2026 period, BII aims for at least 30% of its new commitments to be in climate finance.
BII is one of the most active DFIs operating in India. It makes both direct debt and equity investments in Indian companies and also writes limited partner-style cheques to private equity and venture capital funds. In December, it invested Rs 120 crore as debt in housing finance company Sewa Grih Rin Ltd, which operates under the Sitara brand.
