Exclusive: Ecozen bags $10 Mn in new tranche

Agriculture-focused deep tech startup Ecozen has secured Rs 82.4 crore or $10 million from Nuveen Global Fund. This is the second tranche of its planned Rs 200 crore Series C round.

The board at Ecozen has passed a special resolution to issue 1,06,657 Series C2 CCPS at an issue price of Rs 7725.67 each to raise Rs 82.4 crore or $10 million, according to its regulatory filings with the Registrar of Companies (RoC).

Ecozen offers climate-smart deep tech solutions and core technology stacks including motor controls, IoT, and energy storage. The company has two core products Ecotron and Ecofrost. While the former is powered with robust hardware and software which ensures impeccable water output, Ecofrost is a solar cold storage room that provides freshness to farm produce.

Ecozen claims that it has deployed more than 450 units of Ecofrost whereas Ecotron is adopted by over 70,000 farmers.

As per Fintrackr’s estimates, the company has been valued at around Rs 370 crore or $45 million (post-allotment). After the flow of fresh money, Nuveen Global Fund became the largest stakeholder in the company with 28.90% while promoters: Devendra Gupta, and Prateek Singhal jointly hold 39.92%.

For the uninitiated, US-based Nuveen secured a total of $218 million for its first private equity impact fund this year in January. 

Ecozen had raised Rs 54 crore as the first tranche of the Series C round. Previously, it raised $6 million in November 2019. The company’s operating income grew 66.3% and crossed the Rs 110 crore mark in the fiscal year ending March 2022. Meanwhile, the Pune-based firm was very close to breaking even in FY22 as its losses narrowed by 88.5% and stood at Rs 37 lakh.

Besides India, the firm has also executed successful pilots in Africa and Southeast Asian countries. In the ongoing fiscal year (FY23), it targets 2X growth in its topline.

While the agritech space is yet to churn a unicorn, this year (2022) turned out to be the best year for agritech-focused startups. As per data compiled by Fintrackr, startups in the segment have mopped up more than $650 million in funding against $636 million in 2021.