Utkal Tubers raises US$4.6 million

Utkal Tubers India Pvt. Ltd, Bengaluru-based potato seeds firm, has raised around US$4.6 million from CapAleph Indian Millennium SME Fund and Zephyr Peacock India Fund. While Zephyr Peacock picked a stake in Utkal Tubers in October last year, CapAleph came in as an investor later. The early-stage startup produced 1,000 tonnes of potato seeds last year and is targeting 5,000 tonnes this year.

The startup proposes to scale up the availability of local varieties through facilities that it has set up in Karnataka. It is also in the process of setting up facilities in Odisha, Gujarat, and Punjab.

The company was founded in 2016 and lists Mukul Gulati and George Thomas as its directors. It is also trying to introduce new potato seed varieties that in India that are suitable for non-traditional potato growing areas by partnering with a European potato seed major.

There has been a slew of investments by investment funds in agri-focused startup space. Some of these include recent investment by Accel India in AgroStar which sells agricultural inputs and products to farmers. Delhi-based VDSS Agri Tech Pvt. Ltd, which owns and operates agri-tech startup Paalak.in, also raised funding in February 2017. In March this year, Indian Angel Network (IAN) made an undisclosed investment in Gurgaon-based FarMart, a renting platform for farm equipment.

It will be interesting to see how this market pans out as there are large number of diverse players coming up catering to various market participants.