1 Being a prominent impact investor, we're keen to gain insights into your current portfolio in India. Could you provide an overview of the major sectors or segments across which your Indian investments are distributed?

Omnivore invests in Indian startups developing breakthrough technologies for agriculture, food, climate resilience, and the rural economy. Our investment thesis, and consequently our investments, focuses on six core agritech themes: Farmer Platforms and Fintech, Precision Agriculture, Agri B2B Marketplaces, Farm to Consumer (F2C) Brands, Agrifood Life Sciences, and Post-Harvest Technologies.

2 How does Omnivore support and add value to its portfolio companies beyond capital investment?

Funding startups is only a part of an early-stage venture capitalist’s job. We are a thematic fund with an investment team that brings decades of experience in agribusiness, agricultural development, food processing, rural marketing, and agricultural technology. The first step is identifying and backing promising startups. In due course of the association, we also mentor founders, help them scale their businesses, serve as a sounding board for new ideas, help them navigate out of crises, and leverage our network for business development, hiring and fundraising activities.

We also host India's only agritech networking events, uniting investors, entrepreneurs, policymakers, corporations, thought leaders and ecosystem partners to spark conversations about the future of Indian agriculture and food systems.

3 Can you give us some examples of successful investments made by Omnivore in India, and what made these companies stand out?

As a fund, we are immensely proud of all of our portfolio companies and the benefit that they are bringing to the agricultural sector. In our last decade of operations, we have invested in over 40 startups, out of which we have secured complete exit in two, partial exit in another two, and the rest of the companies are in various stages of their journey.

In terms of DPI and IRR, Eruvaka is the most successful investment by Omnivore. Eruvaka is a precision aquaculture technology company making a portfolio of products for efficient shrimp pond management. We exited our position in Eruvaka via a 100% strategic sale of the company to a Dutch aquafeed giant called Nutreco. What made Eruvaka a great product company was the clarity which the team had of the problem statement and the ability to build a portfolio of great and easy to understand and use products to solve these problems. Eruvaka did a great job in building a team of highly motivated individuals and incredible people heading each vertical. At the time of exit, Eruvaka was present in 8+ countries with more than 95% of its revenues coming from outside of India.

In terms of MOIC, Dehaat, Arya and Pixxel have turned out to be great investments for Omnivore. Dehaat is a full stack agri solutions provider for Indian farmers, providing them inputs, advisory and purchasing outputs from them. Whereas, Arya is a warehouse management company offering integrated services, including post-harvest credit, storage, quality testing, and connecting supply and demand for agri-commodities, thereby reducing post-harvest losses. A strong founding team with the ability to identify an issue in a highly unorganized place and moving in early to deploy technology and execute in such a space is what makes Arya and Dehaat different. On the other hand, Pixxel is a company trying to create a constellation of high resolution hyperspectral satellites to solve various issues related to agriculture, forestry and climate. Again, a visionary founding team and an incredible team driven towards a common goal of building a health monitor for the planet is what is working well for Pixxel.

Apart from these, we also have a bunch of companies such as Ecozen, Stellapps, Tractor Junction, Agrizy, and AgriM, among others, who have been able to generate good revenues and have been profitable right from the beginning. As mentioned earlier, all of our portfolio companies are in different stages of their journey and we are sure of their success in the future.

The recipe for a successful startup is simple, though far from easy. Businesses that have figured out profitability, product-market fit, stable leadership, and sustainable cash flow cycles end up with sturdy business models. It can weather crises better and remain relatively stable despite myriad uncertainties in the markets.

4 How does Omnivore measure and track the impact of its portfolio companies beyond financial returns?

Omnivore has set clear impact expectations for its portfolio companies. In fact, before onboarding all proposed transactions need to be screened against Omnivore's Theory of Change and should conform with at least one of the four impact pillars. Portfolio companies, when they reach a certain maturity level to create tangible impact, are evaluated on an annual basis in selected impact metric(s). This impact measurement and monitoring (IMM): (a) is annual; (b) data is sourced from (i) portfolio company, (ii) smallholder farmer survey and (iii) secondary research, (c) tracks portfolio companies progress over time, and; (d) provides a fund level impact performance.

Our impact metrics also align with global standards like SDG mapping, GIIN, IMP, and OPIM to instill a discipline around impact investing, fostering greater mobilization of capital for impact and a high standard for achievable social and environmental impact.

5 What are your views on the impact investing market in India? How does it compare with other emerging markets where you invest in? Could you share Omnivore’s investment strategy in India for the calendar year 2023?

India is a vast market that offers abundant prospects for investors and enterprises to achieve substantial returns and create a significant positive effect. It is also one of the countries that will experience the most climate change-related adversities. Within the category of emerging markets, India stands out as the primary investment destination owing to the significant challenges and aspirations of the next billion. While the impact investment sector in India has experienced remarkable expansion in recent years, those involved in the industry must recognize that effecting change takes time, especially if we aim to achieve meaningful social or environmental results.

Our investment strategy continues to hinge on our Theory of Change which comprises 4 pillars, — increasing smallholder profitability, enhancing smallholder resilience, improving agricultural sustainability, and catalyzing climate action. We recently announced the first close of our third fund – the Omnivore Agritech & Climate Sustainability Fund. Launched in April 2022, Fund 3 will continue focusing on startups developing breakthrough technologies for agriculture, food, climate, and the rural economy. With our third fund, we expect to make 25–30 new investments in Seed and Series A rounds of agritech startups and MSMEs, with initial check sizes ranging between $ 1 million and $ 5 million. Key themes for new investments include agrifood life sciences, rural fintech, and climate-smart agriculture.