Omnivore Announces First Close Of Third Fund At $150 Mn

Mumbai-headquartered impact venture fund Omnivore announced the first close of its third fund – the Omnivore Agritech & Climate Sustainability Fund – at $150 Mn. Launched in April 2022, the fund will focus on startups developing breakthrough technologies for agriculture, food, climate, and the rural economy.

KfW, Self Reliant India (SRI) Fund, FMO, SIFEM and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) were the first close investors, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Inclusive Agritech Facility, Louis Dreyfus Company Ventures, Dutch Good Growth Fund (DGGF), Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries (BIO) and Yara Growth Ventures.

Omnivore said it would make 25-30 new investments in seed to Series A rounds, with initial cheque sizes ranging between $1 Mn and $5 Mn. The VC firm will look to invest across agrifood life sciences, rural fintech and climate-smart agriculture.

Founded in 2011 by Mark Kahn and Jinesh Shah, Omnivore funds Indian startups in agritech and food systems. The VC firm has backed more than 40 startups, including DeHaat, Arya, Stellapps, Reshamandi, Ecozen, Aquaconnect and Pixxel.

According to Mark Kahn, managing partner at Omnivore, “The greatest risk and opportunity for Indian agriculture are the adverse effects of climate change. Our new fund will have a sharper focus on catalysing climate action in agriculture by funding startups addressing climate mitigation and climate adaptation.”

The VC firm has raised two funds before, in 2018 and 2019. Omnivore’s first fund, Omnivore Partners India Fund 1, closed at $46 Mn, while the second fund, Omnivore Partners India Fund 2, closed at $97 Mn.

Jinesh Shah, managing partner at Omnivore, added, “We are grateful to our investors who share Omnivore’s vision of making India an agritech superpower which positively impacts the lives of smallholder farmers globally.”

Per an Inc42 report, the homegrown agritech ecosystem is projected to grow to $24.1 Bn by 2025.

Omnivore’s fund close comes during an uptick of investor activity in India’s startup ecosystem, as VC and private equity (PE) firms make fund announcements. 

Earlier this week, the early stage VC firm Arkam Ventures launched a second fund with a target corpus of $180 Mn, while the likes of Blume Ventures, Lumikai, Airavat Capital and Avaana Capital made fund announcements last week. In all, VC and PE firms have