April 30, 2018

Dutch animal and aquaculture feed specialist Nutreco has led an undisclosed Series B for India-based IoT aquaculture tech startup Eurvaka. Also participating in the round as a return investor is impact venture capital investor Omnivore Partners.

Under the terms of the deal, Nutreco will acquire a 25 percent stake in the startup, and has agreed to enter into a commercial partnership with the company to help it scale up on a global level. For Omnivore, which targets investments in Indian food and agtech startups, this is its second investment in Eruvaka, having made its first commitment to the company in 2013, however, Omnivore’s stake was not disclosed.

Founded in Vijayawada in 2012 by Sreeram Raavi, Eruvaka Technologies develops solar powered connected devices and mobile-connected sensors and decision making tools that help shrimp and fish farmers to remotely monitor their operations in real time, thereby reducing risk while increasing efficiency and productivity.

“We were very impressed with the product Sreeram had created,” Mark Kahn, founder, Omnivore Partners told Inc42. “His device gives farmers [an] idea about what’s happening in the pond, which otherwise they had no idea about. Across the world, there was no one doing it. We saw the potential of it going across the India and also going global.”

Global Goals

Nutreco, which has a presence across 32 countries and posted net sales of 5.9 billion Euro (US$7.1 billion) in 2016, sees the investment as aligning with mission of “Feeding the Future”, and notes multiple synergies between the two companies that it sees as serving to help scale its business across Latin America and Asia.

“We’ll first focus on Latin America to prove the technology has scale, Viggo Halseth, chief innovation officer, Nutreco, told Feed Navigator. “Latin America tends to have large ponds and low density so here’s a big need there right now for a solution like this.”

Toward this goal, Nutreco’s aquaculture unit, Skretting, will work in association with Eruvaka to integrate its technology into AquaSim, Skretting’s line of precision tools that enable shrimp farmers to accurately administer the correct volume of feed at the most optimum times.

Aspirations in India

Currently, there are approximately 165,000 hectares dedicated to aquaculture production in India, with potential for the industry to grow to 1.19 million hectares, according to Omnivore, reports the Economic Times. Furthermore, Indian seafood exports saw 23 percent growth year-on-year in 2012/2013, reaching a value of $3.5 billion, according to the firm. Of these exports, shrimp accounted for 24.6 percent of the total volume, and 49.6 percent of the total value.

This activity is generally concentrated in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, West Bengal, Odisha and Tamil Nadu, and since its founding, Eruvaka has been mainly operating in the coastal region of Andhra Pradesh. Building upon this foundation, the company has its sights set on expansion across other regions of India as well as into South and Southeast Asia.

“We want to capture 10 percent of the Indian market in the next two years,” Raavi told the Economic Times. “We will use the capital raised to hire a sales force and increase our reach. We will invest in research and development for creating new products, including optimization of seed consumption.”

“It’s a very unique technology combining cloud with mobility for aqua farming,” said Kahn. “The product has market not only in India, but across the globe and can scale massively.”

This is the second investment announced for Omnivore in as many weeks, following upon its undisclosed investment in agricultural sensing and solutions startup AgNext through its Omnivore Partners India Fund 2. Samir Kumar, founder of U.S.-India venture firm Inventus Capital Partners, also participated in the round as an individual, along with unnamed angel investors.

The firm reached the first close of the aforementioned second fund in February of this year, raising $46 million out of a targeted $75 million. Reported investors include the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), RBL Bank, Sorenson Impact Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, Dutch Good Growth Fund (DGGF), Ceniarth, and German government development bank KfW.

Kahn told GAI News in October of 2017 when the fund was announced, that Omnivore plans to invest in up to 20 agtech and innovative rural startups, with a targeted acquisition of between 30 to 35 percent interest in each portfolio company.

-Lynda Kiernan