Eggoz, an egg-focused consumer brand, has raised Series A funding of $3.5 million led by Nabventures, the company said in a statement.
The round also saw participation from Avaana Capital, Rebright Partners, Bellerive Capital and angel investors Sanjiv Rangrass and Indresh Saluja.
Eggoz said the funding will be targeted towards increasing its brand footprint, launching egg-based products, and entering new geographies, the statement said.
Founded by Abhishek Negi, Uttam Kumar, Aditya Singh and Pankaj Pandey, Eggoz, operated by Eggroz Farmz Pvt Ltd., procures and delivers fresh and chemical-free eggs from farmers to retailers within 24 hours. Apart from its primary presence in Delhi-NCR, Eggoz is also present in Allahabad, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Indore, Patna and Ranchi, the statement said.
The brand claims to work closely with farmers with an integrated model, ensuring 100% natural feed to birds and deploying IoT (Internet of things) and farmer app tech platforms.
“Eggoz is a vertically-integrated farm-to-consumer startup, building a brand in a $12 billion egg consumption market that is growing at 15% CAGR, and 98% of total eggs are still consumed in an unpackaged format. We, at Eggoz, are building the first nationwide farm centred around superior quality, high bioavailable nutrition and freshness,” Negi said.
Nabventures Fund 1, the flagship fund of Nabventures Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard), was floated as a Rs 700 crore (around $100 million) venture capital (VC) fund in May 2019. It has a target corpus of Rs 500 crore and greenshoe option of Rs 200 crore.
Nabventures invests in food, agritech, and rural fintech, and has invested in seven startups so far, including Jai Kisan, Unnati, KrishiTantra, Satyukt, TenderCuts and Vilcart. It recently made its first exit, clocking 2.5x returns from its three-month investment in Fraazo, a direct-to-consumer (D2C) brand.
In a recent interview with VCCircle, Nabventures CEO Rajesh Ranjan said it is likely to pare down its average investment size per deal amid tighter startup valuations. Parent Nabard, the apex development finance institution, has assets under management (AUM) of $90 billion.
