Pune-based agritech startup Ecozen Solutions Pvt. Ltd on Thursday said it has secured Rs 54 crore (around $7 million) as a part of its first tranche of the Rs 200 crore ($25.6 million) Series C funding led by Coromandel International’s venture capital arm Dare Ventures.
The fundraise also saw participation from existing investors Caspian and Hivos-Triodos Fonds, with Northern Arc, UC Inclusive Credit, Maanaveeya and Samunnati joining via debt funding.
The company plans to use the fresh funds to expand its product range, manufacturing capacity and boost exports.
Ecozen was founded by three IIT Kharagpur alumni, Devendra Gupta, Prateek Singhal and Vivek Pandey in 2010, with a vision to disrupt the way perishables are handled across the value chain, with clean and innovative technology.
The company manufactures proprietary, solar-powered, micro cold-storage units and water-pumping technologies (called Ecofrost and Ecotron) for farmers and rural communities.
“We are thrilled to partner with Dare Ventures and other new and existing investors, as we accelerate our growth and bring climate-smart deeptech solutions to new sectors of the economy. Expanding beyond India and beyond agriculture will enable us to expand our market potential multifold and grow exponentially while ensuring sustainability,” said Devendra Gupta, CEO and Co-Founder of Ecozen.
“This investment marks the entry of Dare Ventures and Coromandel into the agritech investment space. We are focused on businesses with positive and long-term on the ground impact and Ecozen through its innovative deep tech products, is well aligned with our vision.
With a keen focus on sustainability, we believe their core technology stack will significantly impact sectors beyond agriculture as well. Going forward, we aspire to build a strong portfolio of such highly transformational startups working at different levels of the agricultural value chain and thus creating a remarkable impact on the farmers' livelihoods,” said Sameer Goel, director, Dare Ventures Ltd and managing director, Coromandel International Ltd.
Dare Ventures was launched with a focus on leading investments in early to growth stage start-up companies engaged in providing technology-led solutions for complex and long-term problems in the agriculture and allied sectors.
In 2019, Ecozen raised $6 million in a Series A funding round from Sathguru Catalyser Advisors Pvt. Ltd, which is the asset management company of the Innovation in Food & Agriculture Fund (IFA Fund), and Omnivore, VCCircle reported.
