Agritech venture capital platform Omnivore on Monday announced roll out of a third fund with a target of raising $130 million (Rs 1,000 crore) to invest in early-stage startups, focused on agriculture, food, climate and rural economy.
The firm plans to fund 25-30 new startups with this fund over the following four years.
The venture capital firm often invests in seed, pre-series A and Series A rounds, as well as follow-on funding for potential growth.
Omnivore is targeting the first close of the new fund by September 2022 and a final close by June 2023.
“For over a decade now, we have been a part of the evolution of the agritech ecosystem in India.
Through Omnivore’s investments, we have touched the lives of almost 7 million smallholder farmers, improving their profitability and resilience, while creating value for our investors. We believe agritech is just getting started, and we look forward to supporting a new generation of entrepreneurs building a future for rural India,” said Mark Kahn, Managing Partner of Omnivore.
Founded by Jinesh Shah and Kahn in 2010, Omnivore invests in India, and over the past decade has backed over 35 startups. Omnivore currently manages Rs 936 crore across two funds, the most recent having closed in April 2019.
Some of Omnivore’s portfolio companies include DeHaat, Arya, Reshamandi, Stellapps, AgNext, Bijak, Ecozen, AGRIM, Eruvaka, Pixxel, and Animall.
Earlier in December, Omnivore launched OmniX Bio, an initiative to back early-stage agrifood life sciences startups.
The programme is aimed at supporting Indian entrepreneurs who are working in the fields of agricultural biotechnology, novel farming systems, bioenergy and biomaterials, as well as innovative foods, including alternative protein, the company said.
In an earlier interaction with VCCircle Kahn said, “I believe 2022 will be the year that multiple agritech unicorns are created. More importantly, I believe this year will also see significantly higher farmer adoption of agritech solutions and the continuing digitization of rural India.”