Greenikk, an agritech startup, raises $5.04 million in pre-seed funding

• ByStartupStory     |    January 9, 2023

A number of institutional funders, angel investors, and serial entrepreneurs from India and abroad have contributed to the pre-seed funding of Kerala-based startup Greenikk, which launched India’s first full-stack supply chain connecting banana cultivators, wholesalers, exporters, and B2B buyers on a single platform.

According to Fariq Naushad and Previn Jacob, the co-founders of the award-winning firm that was incubated at Indigram Labs in Delhi, out of this money, Rs 3.34 crore would be in equity and the remaining amount will be in debt.

The most recent round of funding for Greenikk has been provided by 9 Unicorn Ventures, which is the lead investor, Kerala-based angel group Smart Spark Ventures, Mauritius-based Mastermind Capital Ventures, which has invested in several agritech startups and is chaired by Arjun Pillai, who serves on the board of Zoom I Kerala-based Mastermind Capital Ventures, and Reshamandi founders Saurabh Agarwal and Mayank Tiwari (NASDAQ listed).

1.0 Ventures, an angel group based in the USA with a mix of founders and professionals who invest into exciting early-stage technology startups, serial entrepreneur Shiv Shankar, former Country Director of Upaya Social Ventures Amit Antony Alex, and Aman Tekriwal (Maxar VC) with a large number of startup investments under his belt round out the list of funders for the company, which previously received a grant from BIRAC (Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council).

Other investors include the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad’s accelerator, CIIE, Suresh Aravind, a former worldwide vice president of Johnson & Johnson, and American serial entrepreneur Sriram Seshadri.

“We will be using the funds mainly to establish model Enablement Centres, gain traction and build up a scalable business model as also for hiring,” said Fariq and Previn, whose pioneering venture in the agri sector has kindled huge interest.

“Our plan is to hit Rs 100 crore in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) by FY 23. The next fund raise plan is to attract Rs 50 crore from the top venture capital (VC) funds in the country, and some of them have already made commitments for investment,” they pointed out.

Greenikk, which was founded in January 2020, has established Enablement Centers (ECs) throughout the main banana-producing agricultural regions of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka. It offers the complete spectrum of production and marketing, both domestically and abroad, for banana growers, including financial assistance, seeds, crop advice services, insurance protection, agro inputs, and market connections.

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