[Funding alert] Agritech startup Ergos raises additional Rs 38.5 Cr from Chiratae Ventures, Aavishkaar Capital

Agritech startup Ergos Business Solutions Pvt Ltd on Wednesday announced it has raised an additional capital of Rs 38.5 crore ($5 million) in Series A round with fresh investment from Chiratae Ventures and Aavishkaar Capital.

Chiratae Ventures led the Series A round with an investment of Rs 23.5 crore, whereas Aavishkaar Capital, the Impact Investing arm of the Aavishkaar Group, invested an additional Rs 15 crore. The equity round is expected to be an Rs 80 crore raise with another institutional investor set to join the round.

Kishor Jha, Founder and CEO, Ergos, said, 

“We are extremely excited to have Chiratae on board. Along with the continued support from Aavishkaar Capital, we intend to rapidly scale our geographic footprint and remain focussed to service farmers directly at farmgate at over 2000 Grainbank locations over the next few years.”

Founded by young entrepreneurs from Bihar, Kishor Jha and Praveen Kumar, Ergos has been working on  a farm-gate based Grainbank model that the startup has piloted in multiple districts of Bihar. The model enables farmers to digitise their food grains and also provides them with doorstep access to end-to-end postharvest supply chain solutions by leveraging a robust technology platform to ensure seamless service delivery.

The Ergos tech platform operates like a bank and offers storage, digitisation, credit and liquidation facility to farmers through the single platform. Over the last five years, the company’s Grainbank model claims to have consistently helped farmers achieve significantly higher incomes through better price realization of their produce.

The startup supports more than 20,000 farmers on its digital platform and has a physical footprint in more than 60 locations in Bihar. 

TCM Sundaram, Founder and Managing Director, Chiratae Ventures, said, 

“We are excited to partner with Ergos in its contribution to the government’s mission to help farmers double their income in a quantifiable way."

"Ergos is bridging the large gap between the selling price of produce and the realisation of farmers at the farm-gate by using technology to facilitate credit and market linkages to the grains stored with it. This opportunity is massive and Ergos is expected to capitalise on its early lead to become a market leader that creates sustainable development to the farmers' life,” he added.