[Funding alert] Agritech startup qZense raises Rs 4.5 cr in seed round led by Venture Catalysts

Agritech startup QzenseLabs has raised Rs 4.5 crore in seed round of funding led by Venture Catalysts. The investors in this round were Manish Modi - MD, Mastermind Capital, and Vedant Loyalka - Chairman, Curae Health.

The other investors in this round also included 9Unicorns, The Chennai Angels, Entrepreneur First, and Lumis Partners.

Founded in 2019 by Rubal Chib and Dr Srishti Batra, qZense Labs provides IOT-based solution for quality assessment and management of fresh produce. According to them, the startup provides a non-destructive and accurate qualitative grading of fresh foods across the supply chain to food businesses and retailers.

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On the investment, Rubal Chib, founder, qZense, said, “We will leverage the capital infusion to bolster our expansion plans by scaling the team and accelerating our marketing endeavours.”

Leveraging its digital platform, qZense aims to empower food businesses and retailers to not only minimize their produce loss, but also determine the optimal margins of freshness. Its software platform offers two products to ensure an effective and seamless delivery of service. The Q-Scan is a handheld scanning device for grading the internal quality. The second product Q-Log comprises olfactory loggers responsible for measuring the quality of produce during storage and in logistics.

Apoorv Ranjan Sharma, Co-founder & President – Venture Catalysts & 9Unicorns, said, “The digital boom has undeniably put the Indian agritech industry on the map. The space is witnessing new developments every day, each innovation addressing specific pain points in the sector. One such pain point is managing the quality of fresh produce and minimizing its wastage. qZense is aiming to address and resolve this pertinent issue by leveraging the power of digital technology.”

He felt that this startup’s IP is well-positioned to disrupt the market space, which is worth $2 billion.

The startup is already witnessing large use cases in harvesting of sugarcane and vanilla, where non destructive measurement of sugar content is expected to benefit the farmer community.