February 18, 2020

By Lynda Kiernan

Bengaluru-based greenhouse produce supply chain startup Clover Ventures has raised $5.5 million through a Series A backed by Omnivore Partners, along with Accel India Management, and Mayfield, both return investors who had previously participated in Clover’s Seed round in December 2018. 

Co-founded by Avinash, Gururaj Rao, Arvind Murali, and Santhosh Narasipura, Clover partners with greenhouse growers in peri-urban and rural areas throughout the country to create a demand-driven fresh produce supply chain via B2B and B2C channels.

“Clover operates in the highly fragmented but large agriculture market of India,” said Vikram Godse, managing partner, Mayfield. “By using cutting edge technology, systems, and processes, the Clover team, led by Avinash, is disrupting the agriculture value chain for fruits and vegetables.”

The startup manages its greenhouse network providing a full-stack agronomy solution service to its growers resulting in improved yields and freshness, greater standardization of crops, and the reduction of food waste.

“We believe that Clover is building India’s first fresh produce supply chain adapted to the challenge of climate change,” said Mark Kahn, managing partner, Omnivore.

“By leveraging peri-urban greenhouses, Clover can deliver the highest quality vegetables and fruits to B2B and B2C consumers in India’s largest metro areas. Omnivore is excited to support Clover in the coming years as they scale to new heights.” 

This investment by Omnivore is the latest in a string of commitments spanning the course of the past months, after the investor announced the closing of Omnivore Partners India Fund 2 at $97 million with a $15 million investment from the British development finance company CDC Group.

In September 2019 Omnivore, together with aquaculture accelerator HATCH, invested $1.1 million in Seed funding in Chennai-based, AI-driven aquaculture platform Aquaconnect. The following month, Omnivore joined Wavemaker Partners in leading a $1.6 million Seed round for precision ag platform Fasal. In July and December of last year Omnivore also participated in two tranches of funding for Ecozen, and December also saw Omnivore participate in a $2.5 million funding round for Bijak along with Omidyar Network India and Sequoia Capital. 

While vertical farming is not a priority in India due to the high cost of energy combined with the low cost of land, by linking together and aggregating existing small greenhouse growers across India and providing them with the support needed for the production of high-quality, clean and locally-grown produce, Clover is able to increase traceability and improve its farmers’ bottom line in a high-fragmented business market in India. Within this business model, Clover stated that it intends to use the capital raised through this round to expand and diversify the range of fresh produce offered through its greenhouse network.

“Clover is transforming the perishables supply chain to better serve the new-age Indian consumer who values high quality produce,” said Prashanth Prakash, partner, Accel. “We look forward to the journey with a team that has a deep understanding of this space.”

– Lynda Kiernan is Editor with GAI Media and daily contributor to the GAI News and Agtech Intel platforms. If you would like to submit a contribution for consideration, please contact Ms. Kiernan at lkiernan@globalaginvesting.com.