Deeptech startup Ecozen Solutions Pvt Ltd has raised $25 million (around Rs 204 crore) in a Series C funding round led by Nuveen Global Fund and Dare Ventures, the venture capital arm of Coromandel International.
The fundraise also saw participation from Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank), as well as existing investors Caspian and Hivos-Triodos fund.
The debt portion was provided by Maanaveeya Development and Finance, Oxyzo, Northern Arc group, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank.
The round also saw some of its existing investors, including Omnivore and IFA, making partial exits.
The company plans to use the fresh funds to expand its global footprint, particularly in Africa and Southeast Asia.
It will leverage Nuveen’s experience in scaling businesses to augment its commercial offerings.
“As we expand beyond India and agriculture, we will continue to focus on profitable growth and sustainable technology solutions. Ecozen will aggressively expand production capacity and product range,” said Devendra Gupta, co-founder and chief executive officer at Ecozen.
Ecozen was founded by Gupta, Prateek Singhal and Vivek Pandey. The Pune-headquartered company develops climate-smart deeptech solutions for motor controls, IoT (internet of things) and energy storage.
It had last raised $6 million from Sathguru Catalyser Advisors and Omnivore in December 2019.
The firm deploys its technology stacks to the agricultural sector, majoly in cold chains via its Ecofrost product line and in the irrigation industry via the Ecotron product line.
It claims to have helped generate over 1 billion units of clean energy (kWh), saved over 20,000 metric tons of food loss and reduced over 1 million tons of GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions.
“Ecozen, with its innovative clean technology solutions, has potential in international markets. The support from India Exim Bank will boost the company’s efforts to enhance its export capabilities and explore additional business opportunities overseas,” said Harsha Bangari, managing director at Export-Import Bank of India.
The company is also looking beyond agricultural sector to accelerate the broader energy transition through its deeptech offerings. It estimates the market size for its innovative technology stacks in India to grow to $25 billion by 2025.