Freshokartz Agri Products Pvt. Limited, a Jaipur-based agri-tech startup that provides soil data based crop and fertilisers to farmers, announced it has received $1.4 million in pre-series A funding from Rajasthan Venture Capital Fund (RVCF) and AWE (Achieving Women Equity) Funds.
The company will utilise the funds raised for expansion within Rajasthan and other nearby states like Haryana, M.P, U.P and other northern states of India. The funds will be used in capacity building, Tech development and geographic expansion.
Speaking on the funding, Rajendra Lora, Founder, said, “Our company has witnessed significant growth even during COVID-19 crisis, which is driven by our team’s differentiated understanding of India’s agricultural supply chain, its markets and its participants given our personal farming backgrounds. This helps us execute effectively as an effective and integrated agriculture supply chain company. Getting RVCF and AWE Funds’ investment support will help expand and consolidate our footprint not only in Rajasthan but also in neighboring states.”
Chandrakanta, Co-founder remarked, “We are especially delighted with the powerful combination of our two investors who bring significant synergistic value to our company in helping us develop our organization with more than just capital. The vast experiences of the two teams, their associated networks and their focus on not only commercial returns but also a genuine interest in improvement in lives of farmers, especially women farmers, has made this a very valuable partnership.”
Freshokartz is operating 40 physical centers in Rajasthan and working with more than 90,000 farmers. The startup is working with more than 100 Agri Inputs companies including UPL, Chambal Fertilizers to provide best Agri inputs to farmer’s doorsteps.
Gaurav Chowdhry, VP at RVCF said, “It is pertinent for us to look at startups which can sustain in these challenging times by differentiation and innovation. By focusing on farmer’s multitude of farming needs, Freshokartz is providing full stack solutions for better farm outcomes. The team has strong execution capabilities and expect to see significant growth in the coming years. We are happy to partner with Freshokartz in the journey.”
Seema Chaturvedi, Founder & Managing Partner of AWE Funds observed, “At AWE Funds, given our team’s deep agri expertise, we believe that the agri-tech industry is poised for rapid growth. Furthermore, we found FAPL’s focus on appropriate and adaptable farmer-centric technology especially on the downstream input side of the supply chain to be a very compelling investment thesis. Added to the fact that the main beneficiaries are marginal farmers of whom 70% are women, this investment is very aligned with our gender lens focused investment mandate in Achieving Women Equity.”
Founded in 2016 by Rajendra Lora and Chandrakanta, the startup provides technology-enabled full stack of services to small and marginal farmers including agricultural inputs, crop advisory, output linkages, crop insurance and financing to optimize the currently inefficient agri supply chain while enhancing price realization by farmers.
–AN
HrNxt.com Newsdesk has researchers and writers with an excellent domain knowledge about the talent ecosystem, and the business environment. The team keeps a tab on the latest happenings in the ecosystem to bring most relevant news and insights for our readers. You can connect with our newsdesk at newsdesk@hrnxt.com.