Clover, the Bengaluru-based greenhouse agritech startup on Tuesday announced that it has raised Rs 7 crore in venture debt from Alteria Capital.
The current funding is on top of the Rs 39 crore ($5.5 million) raised in the Series A round from Omnivore, Accel and Mayfield announced in February 2020. Clover partners with farmers across India and markets greenhouse-grown fresh produce through B2B and B2C channels.
According to Avinash BR, Co-founder of Clover, “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.”
Founded by Avinash BR, Arvind Murali, Gururaj Rao and Santhosh Narasipura, Clover claims that its business model centres around demand-led cultivation, a managed farm nexus and full-stack agronomy.
The firm grows fresh produce for specific and predictable clients' with its demand-led cultivation. The managed farm network of greenhouses is based in peri-urban and rural areas, surrounding the urban consumption zones, thereby ensuring freshness and reducing spoilage, the startup added. It also facilitates a full-stack agronomy solution to the greenhouse farmers in the network, improving production and standardising output quality.
Commenting on the transaction, Vinod Murali, Managing Partner of Alteria Capital, added, “Agritech is a segment which continues to see tailwinds despite COVID-19-related issues, and Clover provides high-quality produce consistently, which is at an even higher premium currently.”
Avinash earlier worked as a venture investor with Aavishkaar, and previously, spent nearly a decade at Bosch across engineering and corporate strategy roles. Gururaj previously worked in analytics and general management roles at CallidusCloud, Myntra and Info Edge. While Arvind was earlier based in the Gulf in various sales management roles, Santhosh worked manufacturing business, owned by his family.
Alteria’s current portfolio of above 25 companies includes Rebel Foods, Lendingkart ZestMoney, Portea, Vogo, Toppr Technologies, Spinny, Generico, Stanza Living, Dunzo, Vinculum, Mfine, Loadshare, LBB, Maverix, Raw Pressery, Country Delight, and Universal Sportsbiz (Wrogn, Imara, and Ms Taken brands).