Agritech Startup EarthFood Raises Seed Funding To Expand Its Product Line

Pune based agritech startup EarthFood has raised its Seed funding round of $949K (INR 6.4 Cr) from Rairah Corporation. The startup plans to utilise the funds to strengthen its position in the market and invest in building differentiated offerings to consumers.

With the fund, EarthFood also plans to expand their product line by adding milk and milk products along with the launch of residue free spices in the dehydrated segment.

On the fundraise, Nilesh Palresha, founder of EarthFood said, “Getting Rairah Corporation on board was a part of our strategic business decision and I am sure that it will boost our growth and help us in further enhancing footprints of the brand in the market.”

Founded in 2016 by VIT-Pune graduate Nilesh Palresha, EarthFood offers a wide range of organic fruits and vegetable and are sold without adding preservatives and synthetic food enhancers. It was earlier part of a wholesaler VTP Foods.

The startup claims to have its presence in 25 retail outlets with customers both in the offline and online segment. Currently, it supplies an average order of 50 metric tonnes per month.

On the investment, Siddarth Khinvasara, Chairman of Rairah Corporation said, “We at Rairah Corporation are pleased to be associated with EarthFood. Considering the innovative offerings of the brand in the Agri space, we see a solid growth potential for EarthFood in the Indian market and I am excited to be a part of this journey.”

Apart from Rairah Corporation, investors that are active in the agritech space include Omnivore Partners, Future Venture Capital Company Ltd. (FVCCL), IDG Venture, Accel Partners, Aspada Investments, IvyCap Ventures, Unitus Seed Fund, Rabo Equity Advisors, SAIF Partners, Villgro Innovations Foundation, Qualcomm Ventures and IDFC, among others.

As per Inc42 DataLabs report, around $36 Mn was invested in 15 agritech startups in 2017. Out of these, Pune-based agritech startup AgroStar raised the highest funding of $10 Mn led by Accel India in March 2017.

In the most recent development, Chandigarh-based agritech startup AgNext raised an undisclosed amount of Series A funding through its Omnivore partners India Fund 2. The startup plans to use the funding to expand its product in the data analytics in agriculture space by creating a combination of both hardware and software.

IBEF report suggests that country’s Gross Value Added (GVA) from the sector is estimated to have grown at 3% in FY18. Considering the potential to produce all varieties of organic products due to its various agro-climatic regions, startups like EarthFood has a huge potential to meet the demands of organic food demand in the country.