Absolute Foods is gearing up for a $75-90 million (Rs 558-670 crore) fundraising round led by global investors Falcon Edge and Tiger Global, which values the five-year-old agritech firm at $250-300 million, reported Economic Times citing sources.
The company is expected to raise the majority of the funds in the next few weeks, in what may be one of the largest Series A fundraising rounds in India's agritech market, they said.
The report said that currently due diligence is being conducted and final binding proposals will be submitted in about a week. The funds will be utilised to accelerate the company's technical growth and expand into other industries.
Absolute Foods, founded in 2016 by Agam Khare, Prateek Rawat, and Samder Singh, focus on the entire agricultural value chain – from seed to harvest. Its digital platform is an artificial intelligence-driven operating system that can be used in vertical farms, greenhouses, and open fields, enabling farmers to grow crops without the use of synthetic enzymes or genetically modified organisms.
Absolute Foods' software, which works with over 8,000 farmers across 25,000 acres, can identify 63 crop varieties and their optimal harvesting settings, according to the company's website.
The business operates in India, the Middle East, and North Africa. The startup raised $2 million in March this year from Sequoia Capital's Surge incubation programme and two angel investors: Nadir Godrej and Sanjiv Rangrass.
Agritech businesses are gaining traction with risk investors, with many entrepreneurs raising financing in the previous few months. DeHaat, Gramophone, Bijak, Onato, Agrostar, Reshamandi, BharatAgri, and TartanSense were among them.
