Clover announced today that it has raised over USD 5.5 million in Series A funding from Omnivore, alongside existing investors Accel 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. Accel and Mayfield earlier invested in Clover’s seed round back in December 2018, while the company was still in stealth mode.
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Avinash[/caption]
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, Callidus Cloud, 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, “We are thrilled to partner with Omnivore, Accel, and Mayfield as we scale our operations across multiple metro areas. This additional funding will help to accelerate the growth of our managed farm network, support our entry into new cities, and diversify our B2B and B2C fresh produce offerings."
Commenting on the transaction, Mark Kahn, Managing Partner of Omnivore, said “We believe that Clover is building India’s first fresh produce supply chain adapted to the challenge of climate change. By leveraging peri-urban greenhouses, Clover can deliver the highest quality vegetables and fruits to B2B and B2C consumers in India’s largest metro areas. Omnivore is excited to support Clover in the coming years as they scale to new heights."
Prashanth Prakash, Partner at Accel, likewise noted “Clover is transforming the perishables supply chain to better serve the new-age Indian consumer who values high quality produce. We look forward to the journey with a team that has a deep understanding of this space."
Vikram Godse, Managing Partner at Mayfield, also noted “Clover operates in the highly fragmented but large agriculture market of India. By using cutting edge technology, systems, and processes, the Clover team, led by Avinash, is disrupting the agriculture value chain for fruits and vegetables. This not only brings about economic benefits to Clover's B2B customers but also ensures significantly improved quality of produce is delivered to the end B2C consumer."
About Clover:
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.
About Omnivore:
Omnivore is a venture capital firm, based in India, which funds entrepreneurs building the future of agriculture and food systems. Omnivore pioneered agritech investing in India and has backed over 20 startups since 2011. Every day, Omnivore portfolio companies drive agricultural prosperity and transform food systems across India, making farming more profitable, resilient, and sustainable.
About Accel:
Accel is a leading venture capital firm that invests in people and their companies from the earliest days through all phases of private company growth. Acko, Atlassian, BlackBuck, BlueStone, BookMyShow, Braintree, BrowserStack, Cloudera, Collectabillia, CureFit, DJI, Dropbox, Etsy, Facebook, Flipkart, Freshworks, Housing-PropTiger, Lookout Security, Mitra Biotech, MuSigma, Myntra, Ola, Paxata, Portea, Qualtrics, Samunnati, Slack, Spotify, Supercell, Swiggy, UrbanClap and Vox Media are among the companies the firm has backed over the past 30 years. The firm seeks to understand entrepreneurs as individuals, appreciate their originality and play to their strengths, because greatness doesn't have a stereotype.
About Mayfield:
Mayfield is a global venture capital firm with over $2.7 billion under management. Mayfield has been investing in India since 2006 and cumulatively manages $219 million in India across its two India dedicated funds. Mayfield is currently investing out of its second fund and backs early-stage companies (Seed to Series A stage) targeting the consumer and business sectors across tech and tech-enabled verticals.
[caption id="attachment_142079" align="alignleft" width="257"]
Avinash[/caption]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, Callidus Cloud, 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, “We are thrilled to partner with Omnivore, Accel, and Mayfield as we scale our operations across multiple metro areas. This additional funding will help to accelerate the growth of our managed farm network, support our entry into new cities, and diversify our B2B and B2C fresh produce offerings."
Commenting on the transaction, Mark Kahn, Managing Partner of Omnivore, said “We believe that Clover is building India’s first fresh produce supply chain adapted to the challenge of climate change. By leveraging peri-urban greenhouses, Clover can deliver the highest quality vegetables and fruits to B2B and B2C consumers in India’s largest metro areas. Omnivore is excited to support Clover in the coming years as they scale to new heights."
Prashanth Prakash, Partner at Accel, likewise noted “Clover is transforming the perishables supply chain to better serve the new-age Indian consumer who values high quality produce. We look forward to the journey with a team that has a deep understanding of this space."
Vikram Godse, Managing Partner at Mayfield, also noted “Clover operates in the highly fragmented but large agriculture market of India. By using cutting edge technology, systems, and processes, the Clover team, led by Avinash, is disrupting the agriculture value chain for fruits and vegetables. This not only brings about economic benefits to Clover's B2B customers but also ensures significantly improved quality of produce is delivered to the end B2C consumer."
About Clover:
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.
About Omnivore:
Omnivore is a venture capital firm, based in India, which funds entrepreneurs building the future of agriculture and food systems. Omnivore pioneered agritech investing in India and has backed over 20 startups since 2011. Every day, Omnivore portfolio companies drive agricultural prosperity and transform food systems across India, making farming more profitable, resilient, and sustainable.
About Accel:
Accel is a leading venture capital firm that invests in people and their companies from the earliest days through all phases of private company growth. Acko, Atlassian, BlackBuck, BlueStone, BookMyShow, Braintree, BrowserStack, Cloudera, Collectabillia, CureFit, DJI, Dropbox, Etsy, Facebook, Flipkart, Freshworks, Housing-PropTiger, Lookout Security, Mitra Biotech, MuSigma, Myntra, Ola, Paxata, Portea, Qualtrics, Samunnati, Slack, Spotify, Supercell, Swiggy, UrbanClap and Vox Media are among the companies the firm has backed over the past 30 years. The firm seeks to understand entrepreneurs as individuals, appreciate their originality and play to their strengths, because greatness doesn't have a stereotype.
About Mayfield:
Mayfield is a global venture capital firm with over $2.7 billion under management. Mayfield has been investing in India since 2006 and cumulatively manages $219 million in India across its two India dedicated funds. Mayfield is currently investing out of its second fund and backs early-stage companies (Seed to Series A stage) targeting the consumer and business sectors across tech and tech-enabled verticals.
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