Bengaluru, NFAPost: Eeki Foods, an agritech startup, has raised Series A funding of $6.5 million led by General Catalyst (GC).
Other key investors participating in this round include Avaana Capital; Better Capital; Irving Fain, CEO & Founder of Bowery Farming (a GC portfolio company with $2.3B in valuation); Subbu Palaniappan, Director & Head of Amazon Prime India; Srinivas Narayanan, former VP Engg at Facebook; Akhil Gupta, and Amit Kumar Agarwal, Co-founders of NoBroker.com.
Eeki Foods’ vision is a world in which nutritious residue-free vegetables are affordable and accessible to everyone – a world free from malnutrition and deficiencies. So, they are setting up large-scale, climate-proof farms equipped with proprietary growing chambers that allow low-cost production of high-quality vegetables.
Abhay Singh and Amit Kumar, two IIT-Bombay graduates, founded eekifoods in 2018 with a mission to make farming sustainable and climate-proof. After doing extensive research for 3 years, they developed patent-pending growing chambers that grow tasty, nutritious residue-free vegetables.
Commenting on the funding, Eeki Foods Cofounders Abhay Singh and Amit Kumar said the fresh funds will be used to scale Eeki to hundreds of acres.
“This coming year, we will focus on building the team, technology and organizational scale to make this growth a reality. We are actively looking to establish partnerships with corporates, HNIs, and other retail farmers in Rajasthan, Delhi-NCR, and Maharashtra to build such farms across the country,” said Eeki Foods Cofounders Abhay Singh and Amit Kumar.
Eeki Foods technology enables the farm’s climate to be controlled, allowing vegetables to be grown all year without being affected by seasonal variations. Their patent-pending IoT control mechanism deployed on farms, makes operations more robust, cost-effective, and less reliant on manual labour. Eeki farms provide 300% more yield on any land barren or unused at 50% of the growing cost, using 80% less water.
General Catalyst Partner Anand Chandrasekaran said Eeki’s innovative, India-centric growing system as well as its unique business model are making a meaningful difference in the lives and livelihoods of farming partners and consumers.
“Amit and Abhay are building an important company with Responsible Innovation at the core. We at GC are thrilled to invest in Eeki as part of the fund’s focus in India as they execute on their mission to empower farmers and to bring fresh vegetables to the masses,” said General Catalyst Partner Anand Chandrasekaran.
Avaana Capital’s Anjali Bansal said Avaana is delighted to be early believers and support Eeki’s vision to create climate-resilient agricultural systems.
“Eeki’s patent-pending technology revolutionizes controlled environment agriculture, producing high-quality staple vegetables at affordable prices. We are proud to participate in the team’s journey as investors, and are excited about Eeki building the future of farming,” said Avaana Capital’s Anjali Bansal.
Eeki Foods had earlier raised funds from GSF Accelerator and Avaana Capital, Better Capital ice.vc and O2 Angels Network respectively. Other existing investors include Ramakant Sharma, Founder of Livspace; Harsh Shah, Founder of Fynd; Kunal Shah, Founder of CRED; Dinesh Agarwal, CEO of IndiaMart; and Rajesh Sawhney, Founder & CEO of GSF Accelerator, Bollywood actor Cyrus Sahukar, Sumit Jain of BirdEye and Shrishti Sahu of SSV.
About Eeki Foods:
Founded in 2018, Eeki Foods aims to make farming sustainable and climate-proof using their patent-pending growing chambers that grow tasty, nutritious residue-free vegetables. With farms in Rangpur, Bhilwara, Talera, Nanta and Panipat, Eeki foods aims to minimize price fluctuations in market staples like cucumber, chillies, and Tomatoes, while keeping produce nutritious and residue-free. For more:
About General Catalyst:
General Catalyst is a venture capital firm that invests in powerful, positive change that endures — for our entrepreneurs, our investors, our people, and society. We support founders with a long-term view who challenge the status quo, partnering with them from seed to growth stage and beyond to build companies that withstand the test of time. With offices in San Francisco, Palo Alto, New York City, London, and Boston, the firm has helped support the growth of businesses such as: Airbnb, Deliveroo, Guild, Gusto, Hubspot, Illumio, Lemonade, Livongo, Oscar, Samsara, Snap, Stripe, and Warby Parker. For more: www.generalcatalyst.com
About Avaana Capital:
Avaana Capital is an early to growth stage VC fund platform investing in technology and innovation-led start-ups that catalyse climate solution and sustainability and deliver exponential returns. Avaana’s investments include Farmart, Alphavector, Coverstack, Eggoz, Terra.do, Praman, Praan.ai, Belora, Reshamandi. Avaana team has invested in and supported category creators like Nykaa, Delhivery, UrbanCompany, Darwinbox.
