Aavishkaar Capital invests Rs 35 crore in agri-tech start-up Ergos

Aavishkaar Capital, the impact investing arm of the Aavishkaar group, has invested Rs 35 crore (US$5 million) in a Series A round in Ergos, an agri-tech start-up.

The company was founded by Mr Kishor Jha and Mr Praveen Kumar, entrepreneurs from Bihar, Ergos has been developing a GrainBank model that has been piloted in Bihar. Ths will help farmers to digitise their food grain and offer doorstep access to end-to-end post-harvest supply chain solutions to the farmers by utilising the technology platform. This platform has provided opportunity for farmers to increase their earnings, according to a press release from Aavishkaar.

The statement added that the Ergos platform operated like a bank and offered storage, digitisation, credit and liquidation facility to farmers.

Ergos was provided seed funding by Aavishkaar in 2015 from an earlier fund at the ideation stage and worked with the promoters in scaling the model. The Series A funding was expected to be a Rs 100 crore (US$ 14.37 million) round with an Aavishkaar Capital Limited Partner and a technology venture capital fund set to join the round.

Mr Kishor Jha, Founder and CEO, Ergos, said that the aim is to build GrainBank to serve the post-harvest requirements of all farmers, especially small and marginal farmers. It also plans to extend it services into nearby states and help more than a million farmers by 2025 with over 2,000 branch locations. The start-up supports more than 20,000 farmers on its digital platform and has a physical footprint in over 60 locations.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.