Caspian Equity Closes Agri-Focused Fund At Rs. 52 Cr In Food And Agriculture Startups

Impact investment company Caspian Equity announced on Tuesday that it would soon mark the final close of a fund that focuses on food and agriculture.

According to Saurabh Johri, executive director and chief executive officer at Caspian Equity, "the fund is expecting to hit the final close at Rs 52 crore (about $6.3 million) in a few months."

Caspian Equity, a venture capital fund based in Hyderabad that invests in social impact startups, has launched a new equity fund LEAF (Leap for Agriculture Fund) with a focus on early-stage Food and Agribusiness startups. LEAF intends to achieve positive social and environmental impact through its investments while also aiming for an attractive financial return by emphasizing close collaboration with portfolio companies to provide the necessary support.

"Caspian LEAF will focus on high-impact, close-to-farmer solutions that benefit small ad marginal farmers. We are looking into areas such as input efficiency, drudgery reduction, labor-saving farm machinery, close-to-farm processing, and traceability solutions. We hope to be more than just investors by assisting in the development of strong and sustainable businesses. We hope to be more than just investors, and to assist in the development of robust and sustainable businesses that become market leaders in the industries in which they operate," said Emmanuel Murray, Investment Director at Caspian Equity and Fund Manager of the Caspian LEAF Fund.

With ticket sizes ranging from Rs 1 to Rs 5 crore, the fund, which has a size of Rs 52 crore, will invest in pre-series A startups. Induslnd Bank, Sivakumar Surampudi, Kishore Moorjani, Swaminathan Aiyer, and Shyamprasad Bhat are just a few of the notable investors who have already committed to investing in the fund, which plans to back 12 startups.

Referring to the investment Srinivas Bonam, Head of Inclusive Banking Group, IndusInd Bank, states, "It is encouraging to see such an experienced and talented team enter the early-stage agri-based startup segment and nurture young companies from the grassroots level. Caspian Equity has been one of the pioneers in the impact investing space, with an impressive track record of making investments in some of the best-known impact organizations in India. We are placing a vote of confidence in this upcoming venture by investing in it. I hope the team has a lot of success.”

The fund aims to combine close operational support and oversight on governance structures with access to equity during the crucial years of transaction and scaling up of start-up operations. The fund aims to make a significant improvement to the agricultural value chain, focusing primarily on the upstream segment, which will address pain points throughout various components of the agri value chain.

In addition to aiming to achieve an appealing financial return, Caspian LEAF Fund will place a strong emphasis on closely collaborating with startups to provide support. Swaminathan Aiyer, a well-known economist, columnist, and journalist, has also invested in Caspian LEAF and believes that "the rich experience that Caspian Equity has acquired in approximately 20 years of impact investing has made it into one of the veterans of this sector." The LEAF Fund by Caspian Equity will support agricultural companies not only with financial investments but also with governance and technical advice. My confidence in the market economy and the capabilities of Caspian is what motivated me to invest in the fund.

The fifth fund in the impact sector, the Caspian LEAF fund was launched in line with Caspian Equity's long-term goal of working closely with early-stage entrepreneurs. According to Saurabh Johri, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer at Caspian Equity, "The fourth fund on Small Medium Enterprise is doing well despite the consistent headwinds for more than two years, and we hope to consistently repeat the strong performance with LEAF in Agri/Agri-tech space."

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