India-based venture capital firm Omnivore has collected $97m for its second fund, with commitments from limited partners including the corporate venturing arm of chemicals producer BASF, the Economic Times reported yesterday.
BASF Venture Capital was joined in the fund by development banks CDC Group and FMO, Swiss Investment Fund for Emerging Markets, Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries, startup studio Mistletoe and several undisclosed family offices.
Omnivore targets early-stage companies developing products to transform the agriculture industry, such as farmer-focused fintech, supply chain tools, energy management, food processing, farm automation and robotics, big data and farm storage technologies.
Fund II was oversubscribed from a $75m target. It will provide up to $4m for each company and has completed five investments to date, including deals for produce delivery service Doodhwala, robotics technology producer TartanSense and agricultural testing platform developer Intello Labs.
The firm’s first fund was anchored by food and consumer products group Godrej Agrovet in 2010. Co-founder and managing partner Mark Kahn had been vice-president of strategy at Godrej Agrovet prior to launching Omnivore, which was initially known as Omnivore Partners.
Kahn told ET: “We want to support entrepreneurs who are working to disrupt food systems across India, making agriculture more profitable, stable and sustainable.”