Agritech startup Ergos on Friday said it has raised $10 million (Rs 82.8 crore) in a Series B funding through a mix of equity and debt rounds.
While the equity investment was of $7 million, the debt was $3 million.
The fundraise saw Oslo-based Abler Nordic (formerly Nordic Microfinance Initiative) joining the captable along with existing investors Aavishkar Capital, Chiratae Ventures and Trifecta Venture Debt Fund, who doubled down on their agritech investments.
Ergos, which was founded by Kishor Jha and Praveen Kumar in 2010, digitises grain storage, allowing farmers to convert their grains into tradable digital assets and earn more by selling produce at optimal times post-harvest. The company offers a buyer's platform linking farmers to markets, safe grain storage in warehouses, and access to affordable finance through partner lenders.
“Ergos’s Grainbank platform enables farmers to take optimal decisions on sales/storage of their produce, access credit from banks as well as get access to competitive prices through planned liquidations and access to a spectrum of buyers,” said Jha, founder and chief executive officer, Ergos.
In 2021, it raised Rs 22.5 crore from UK-based British International Investment (BII), formerly CDC Group Plc as part of its Series A funding round. It had also received investments from Aavishkaar Capital, which had invested Rs 35 crore and Chiratae Ventures which invested Rs 23 crore as part of the Series A round, thus taking the total funding raised in the round to Rs 81 crore.
Ergos claims to support 160,000 farmers on its platform and has a physical network of farm-gate-based warehouses branded as Grainbank in 200 locations across the states of Bihar, Karnataka and Maharashtra.
Meanwhile, social impact investors Abler Nordic launched its fifth fund in February with an aim to raise at least $140 million this year. It plans to continue investing in microfinance companies with its latest fund and to allocate a significant portion for further investments in the Indian market.
