Ergos Bags $5 Mn From Chiratae Ventures, Aavishkaar Capital

SUMMARY

In April, Ergos had raised $5 Mn in a Series A funding round from Aavishkaar Capital

The company plans to expand its footprint in more states with the new round of capital

Ergos is an agri-supply chain startup that helps small and marginal farmers in India digitise their food grain distribution

Bengaluru-based agritech startup Ergos has raised an additional $5 Mn in a Series A funding round from Chiratae Ventures and Aavishkaar Capital. The Series A funding is expected to be a part of a larger $10 Mn round which will see participation from Aavishkaar Capital and an undisclosed institutional investor.

Chiratae Ventures led the Series A round with an investment of $3 Mn whereas Aavishkaar Group’s equity investment arm Aavishkaar Capital, invested an additional $2 Mn.

Prior to this, Ergos had raised $5 Mn in a Series A funding round from Aavishkaar Capital in April.

Ergos solves warehousing problems for the farmers through its tech-enabled GrainBank that has been piloted in Bihar. The company intends to expand its footprint in more states with the new round of capital

Founded in 2012 by Kishor Jha and Praveen Kumar, Ergos is an agri-supply chain startup that helps small and marginal farmers in India digitise their food grain distribution. The company offers doorstep access to end-to-end post-harvest supply chain solutions. Moreover, the platform also operates as a bank and offers several facilities — storage, digitisation, credit, and liquidation.

Speaking on this investment, Kishor Jha, founder & CEO, Ergos, said, “We are building the Ergos Grainbank to serve small and marginal farmers by leveraging technology and data sciences to disrupt the way farmers deal with their produce. We are extremely excited to have Chiratae on board; and along with the continued support from Aavishkaar Capital, we intend to rapidly scale our geographic footprint and remain focussed to service farmers directly at farmgate at over 2000 Grainbank locations over the next few years.”

According to the latest EY India report, adoption of agritech presents a market potential of $24 Bn by 2025. As per the Inc42 Plus report, agritech startups raised $244.59 Mn in 2019, representing an increase of over 350% from 2018. In a big push, the Indian government plans to invest nearly INR 36.71 Cr in 346 agritech startups.