Greenday’s FMCG Brand Ropes In PV Sindhu As Investor

Agritech startup Greenday’s FMCG brand Better Nutrition has roped in badminton player PV Sindhu as an investor and brand ambassador.

The Lucknow-based startup plans to use the fresh capital to expand its NutriFarms project and strengthen its biofortification technology, Inc42 has learnt.

Additionally, Greenday will use a part of its proceeds to enhance its distribution network and support the expansion across multiple crops.

Prior to this, in 2022, Greenday raised an undisclosed amount of funding from IIMA Ventures (formerly known as CIIE), a startup incubator established in IIM-Ahmedabad, along with a clutch of angel investors.

Through its partnership with Sindhu, Greenday aims to address the pressing issue of micronutrient deficiencies in India through biofortification, the company said in a statement.

Founded by Prateek Rastogi and Aishwarya Bhatnagar in 2017, Greenday incentivises farmers to grow nutrition-dense crops enriched with essential micronutrients such as Iron, Zinc, Vitamin A, and Vitamin D.

Currently, it operates around 75 agri-input stores and procurement centres across the country under its Greenday ‘Kisan Ki Dukan Brand’.

Meanwhile, its FMCG brand Better Nutrition uses the biofortification process to increase the nutritional value of crops from the seed stage. It has a wide range of products in its line up, including biofortified Atta, Rice, Bajra, Ragi and Makka.

“Currently, we are collaborating with 15,000 farmers and have plans to scale up our operations significantly. Our goal is to expand across various geographies and crops. With our revenue already surpassing INR 10 Crores, we project the nutrition-dense farming and staples market to grow to about INR 2000 Crores by 2030, and Greenday to be at the forefront of this growth,” said Rastogi.

It is pertinent to note that Greenday offers biofortified seeds to farmers and also purchases produce directly from them at a premium price.

The startup claims to have partnered with several FMCG brands, mill owners and government entities so far to establish a supply chain of advanced biofortified agriculture produce.

Greenday competes against the likes of Bengaluru-based Agrizy and Gurgaon-based Agrowave among others in the food and agriculture tech market.

The development comes at a time when homegrown agritech startups are drawing significant amounts of funding from investors. As per Inc42 data, the Indian agritech sector bagged more than $2.4 Bn in funding in 285 deals between 2014 and February 2024.

Last month, New Delhi-based agritech startup Poshn raised $4 Mn in a mix of equity and debt in its pre-Series A funding round co-led by Prime Venture Partners and Zephyr Peacock India.

Similarly, FarMart bagged INR 24 Cr as part of a funding round from Swiss asset manager ResponsAbility Investments.

Recently, Sanjeev Bikchandani-led internet company Info Edge also infused an additional INR 15 Cr into agritech startup Gramophone.