Greenhouse Agritech Platform Clover Raises ₹7 Cr in Venture Debt from Alteria Capital

Clover announced today that it has raised INR 7 crore in venture debt from Alteria Capital. This is on top of the INR 39 crore (USD 5.5 million) Series A round, announced in February 2020, that was raised from Accel, Omnivore, and Mayfield.

Clover is a greenhouse agritech platform, which partners with farmers across India and markets premium quality, branded, greenhouse-grown fresh produce through B2B and B2C channels. 

Clover’s business model centers around demand-led cultivation, a managed farm network, and full stack agronomy. Demand-led cultivation means that Clover grows high quality, consistent, and traceable fresh produce for specific and predictable client demands. The managed farm network of greenhouses are based in peri-urban and rural areas surrounding urban consumption zones, thereby ensuring freshness and reducing spoilage. Clover provides a full stack agronomy solution to the greenhouse farmers in the network, improving yields and standardizing output quality. 

Based in Bangalore, Clover was co-founded by Avinash BR, Gururaj Rao, Arvind Murali, and Santhosh Narasipura. Avinash previously worked as a venture investor with Aavishkaar and earlier spent almost a decade at Bosch across engineering and corporate strategy roles. Gururaj previously worked in general management and analytics roles for Myntra, CallidusCloud, and Info Edge. Arvind was earlier based in the Gulf in various sales management roles while Santhosh worked in his family’s manufacturing business. 

According to Avinash, Co-Founder of Clover, “Alteria has been tracking our progress since the early days and we are excited to have them onboard. The recently closed Series A round alongside Alteria's current investment will help us achieve our vision to reshape the supply chain for greenhouse-grown fresh produce.” 

Commenting on the transaction, Vinod Murali, Managing Partner of Alteria Capital, said “We are excited to partner with Avinash and the team at Clover in their journey to reimagine the supply chain for fresh produce. Agritech is a segment which continues to see tailwinds despite COVID-related issues and Clover provides high quality produce consistently, which is at an even higher premium currently.” 

Clover is a greenhouse agritech platform, which partners with farmers across India and markets premium quality, branded, greenhouse-grown fresh produce through B2B and B2C channels. For further information on Clover, please visit: ​https://www.clover.ag/ 

Alteria Capital is India’s leading venture debt fund focused on innovative startups backed by strong VC sponsors. The fund has a corpus of Rs. 962 Cr with a strong mix of domestic institutional investors as well as family offices and founders. Alteria provides venture debt to high growth, innovative Indian startups with a cheque size range of Rs. 2 Cr – Rs. 100 Cr. Alteria’s current portfolio of 25+ companies includes Rebel Foods, Lendingkart Zestmoney, Portea, Toppr Technologies Ltd, Spinny, Stanza Living, Raw Pressery, Vogo, Dunzo, Vinculum, Mfine, Loadshare, LBB, Maverix, Generico, Country Delight and Universal Sportsbiz Pvt Ltd (Wrogn, Imara & Ms. Taken brands).

Gurgaon's 17 Yr Old Led Startup Made To United Nations' Top-50 List

Tyrelessly -- a greentech startup led by Anubhav Wadhwa, who is a mere 17 year old school boy from Gurgaon, has made it to the first edition of the Youth Solutions report of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN).

Anubhav (born 21 March 1999) is a technology entrepreneur, designer, big data analyst, computer programmer and a student of Pathways World School of Gurgaon.

The Youth Solutions report is UN's endeavor to showcase extraordinary work done by young people across the globe and present them with opportunities to draw interest from potential supporters. The first edition of the report identifies 50 youth-led projects aiming to solve environmental issues.

Anubhav founded Tyrelessly in 2015 which will now feature in this Youth Solutions report selected by an expert advisory panel led by Jeffrey Sachs, an American economist and director at The Earth Institute, Columbia University.

Tyrelessly has an online platform and conscious vehicle owners can follow a few simple steps to have their vehicle’s 'End-of-Life' tyres disposed off safely. The company takes care of tyre collection through the online platform and users are notified after the disposal. Currently, the startup is operational in National Capital Region.

Siamak Sam Loni, Global Coordinator of SDSN Youth, said to Times of India, "Youngsters are contributing to sustainable development but they face challenges that prevent them from realising their full potential. These challenges include the lack of visibility, limited access to finance, and the lack of training and technical support."

The report will help investors, donors and supporters better understand the multi-faceted role of young people in sustainable development and give them additional opportunities to showcase and scale their work, he added.

Notably, in India, about 100 million tyres require recycling annually and that's about 275,000 Tyres (675 Shipping Containers or 2500 tonnes) Every Day!

Anubhav, with his startup, aims to boost tyre recycling rates in at least 100 communities, grow to one million members and help launch new programs in communities all across India.

Green-Tech Startup Sets Up India’s Largest Biomass Cook-Stove Factory In Gujarat

Mumbai-based green-tech startup Greenway Grameen Infra, an incubatee company of IIM Ahmadabad’s Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE), has set up India's largest manufacturing unit for biomass cook stoves in Vadodara, Gujarat. Greenway is a product design and distribution start-up that aims to serve rural India through quality-of-life-enhancing home-appliances and has already sold over 250,000 cook stoves. With a capacity to manufacture 8 lakh units per annum, their aim is to replace the usage of traditional mud stoves (chulhas) that are known for grave negative health and environmental impacts and achieve greater scale.

"Our flagship product, the Greenway Smart Stove, is a high-efficiency cook stove that burns all biomass fuels (wood, cow-dung, etc.) while reducing smoke by 70%, fuel use by 65% and GHG emissions by 1.5 tons/year. The USP of these stoves is that they are durable, without moving parts, and are portable," said Neha Juneja, co-founder, Greenway. The idea of Greenway Cook Stoves was born when Ankit Mathur and Neha Juneja, fresh MBA graduates from IIM Ahmadabad and FMS Delhi, were traveling through rural areas to undertake energy projects.

"Till recently we used to get these cook stoves manufactured by a local vendor. The Government's commitment to 'Make in India' and renewable sources of energy, was a key decision-making criterion for us to initiate our own plant for manufacturing these”, said Neha. The stoves are also certified by the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy, Government of India. Having bagged many awards for their unique design and affordable product, Greenway was one of the two Indian companies to have won the prestigious Ashden Clean Energy for Women and Girls Award at the International Ashden Awards 2014. “With this new manufacturing capacity, we shall now be able to achieve economies of scale and produce more efficiently and hope to be able to pass on the benefits to the end customers through lower prices", she added.

Greenway received its seed funding from CIIE. Talking more about investing in Greenway, Vipul Patel, Associate Vice President at CIIE says, "Not many start-ups are coming up with innovative appliances that cater to the rural market have their own manufacturing base. However, having one has its advantages. It reduces vendor dependency, helps to have better control on quality, and lowers costs effectively. As investors, we are happy to see such companies setting up their manufacturing units in India and contributing towards the Government's 'Make in India' initiative." Incidentally, Greenway chose Gujarat to set-up its manufacturing plant. "While we are headquartered in Mumbai and most of our customers are in the southern states, we felt that Gujarat offered a very conducive environment for new businesses", added Ankit Mathur, co-founder of Greenway who has been leading setting up of the new plant.

"Cooking with biomass fuels on traditional mud stoves has been the number one health risk in India and even worse, they contribute to 25% of the global black carbon emissions. This cooking method is also inconvenient and arduous, requiring mostly female users to spend an average of 5 hours a day in a smoke-filled kitchen, constantly tending the flames. Yet there is an acute lack of products designed for these users, and for rural consumers in general. Greenway saw that need and decided to address it by combining technological innovation & user co-creation to solve energy issues facing rural consumers," says Neha.