Pioneering Ventures acquires Indian agri-tech company Lateral Praxis

Switzerland-based agri-food investor Pioneering Ventures has announced the acquisition of an Indian agri-tech company Lateral Praxis. 

The move is aimed at enhancing the downstream reach of tech-enabled solutions for the food supply chain, including information access, apps, data analytics, and risk mitigation, Pioneering Ventures said in a statement. 

Dr Pablo Erat, Co-founder of Pioneering Ventures, said, 

“End-to-end supply chain digitisation has been a core pillar of our strategy. We have been working successfully with Lateral Praxis for many years and I am confident that the team will further boost our technology and data expertise. The acquisition is an important milestone in the implementation of our strategy to accelerate the development of our fully integrated food technology platform and help us drive large-scale transformation across the food ecosystem through data intelligence-based services.”

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Founded in 1999 by Suniti Gupta, Lateral Praxis said it works closely with central and state governments, ministries and departments, along with farmer communities at village/panchayat level to build, configure and implement knowledge-based systems.

The Mumbai-based agritech platform provides solutions such as online payment platforms, information aggregation and data mining for a varied customer base.

Suniti Gupta, Founder and CEO of Lateral Praxis added,

“As Indian agriculture and food sector gets ready to embrace the next generation, tech-enabled future, the time is ripe for positive disruption. Our experience and core competencies will be augmented well by Pioneering Ventures’ expertise and presence across the food supply chain, helping us jointly scale up our solutions and delivery.”

Pioneering Ventures is a food, finance and technology platform company that has been investing in the Indian food ecosystem to provide people with healthy food in a sustainable manner.

Through its portfolio of five tech-enabled growth businesses and two pilot ventures in India, it produces 450 tons of healthy food that reaches over 1.5 million consumers.

Across its businesses, Pioneering Ventures claims to have achieved sales of $65 million in FY19-20, with a four-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 117 percent.

Its portfolio includes firms such as FarmLink, a supply chain champion for vegetables and commodities; Citrus Processing India, one of India’s largest citrus concentrate producer; MilkLane, which produces dairy products with Swiss standards; Desai Fruits Venture, a branded fruit company; Samaaru, a farmer-centric agri-finance and value chain services platform; and DistriCo, an integrated last-mile distribution platform.