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Impact venture fund Omnivore has made its second investment in agri-food sensing solutions startup AgNext Technologies.
Omnivore, which had announced making the first close of its Fund II at $46 million earlier this year, is targeting the final close at $75 million.
The fund, which is hoping to strike 16 to 20 deals from fund II, invests in ticket sizes ranging between $1 and $2 million. The deal also saw participation from Singapore-based high-networth individual Samir Kumar.
Chandigarh-based AgNext was cofounded by IIT Kharagpur alumni in 2016. The startup was incubated at Science and Technology Entrepreneurs Park at IIT Kharagpur, and received seed funding and acceleration from a-IDEA, which is managed by the National Academy of Agricultural Research Management in Hyderabad.
The startup collects spatial, temporal and spectral data to provide sensing solutions across the agriculture and food value chain.
The firm has developed an integrated digital platform through which growers and food processors can improve their productivity, quality and profitability.
AgNext is currently focused on horticulture, floriculture and plantation crops. “We will also be looking at fintech deals in companies focussed on farmers as beneficiaries, food processing companies that are sourcing directly from farmers and also farmer-focussed clean tech companies,” said Mark Kahn, founding partner at Omnivore.