Private equity firm Zephyr Peacock India is investing an undisclosed amount in Bengaluru-based potato seeds firm Utkal Tubers India Pvt. Ltd, according to a report.
The deal is part of Zephyr Peacock’s plans to make several investments in the food and beverages sector, the Mint newspaper reported, citing the PE firm’s vice president Pankaj Raina.
Utkal Tubers will use the funds to produce high-quality mini-tubers in a tissue culture laboratory and multiply them in its own development farms and through supervised contract farming in different regions of the country.
Email queries to Utkal Tubers and Zephyr Peacock didn’t elicit any immediate response.
In April, the potato seeds company signed an initial pact with the Odisha government to set up a research lab for tissue culture development and development farms in rural areas for seed multiplication.
Zephyr Peacock India manages local investments as part of the global PE network under Zephyr Management LLP.
Zephyr Peacock India manages assets worth of $225 million across three funds. It has investments in application software provider Miles Software Solutions, telecom services provider Metro Wireless Engineering India, electric utilities provider Flareum Technologies and life sciences tools and services provider Aizant Drug Research Solutions, among others.
Last year, the PE firm partly exited its investment in Pennar Engineered Building Systems Ltd.
The vegetable seeds segment in the country hasn’t seen many deals in the recent past. Siddhivinayak Agri Processing Pvt. Ltd, a Pune-based potato supply chain management company that operates as SV Agri, had in January raised an undisclosed amount in a Series B round of funding led by impact venture capital firm Lok Capital.
Also, VCCircle reported in August that Hyderabad-based Nuziveedu Seeds Ltd, the country’s top private sector seeds company by revenue, was looking to refile documents to go public.
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