Kota-based Agritech startup Eeki Foods said on April 19 that it had raised $6.5 million in a Series A funding round led by venture capital firm General Catalyst (GC). Key investors participating in the round include Avaana Capital, Better Capital, and Bowery Farming CEO and founder Irving Fain, among others.

The newly raised funds will be used to expand Eeki to hundreds of acres, Eeki Foods co-founders Abhay Singh and Amit Kumar informed. The company’s focus for the year ahead will be on team building, technology, and organisational size, they said. Founded in 2018, Eekifoods is led by CEO Singh and COO Kumar. The company aims to make farming sustainable and claims to have developed large, climate-tolerant farms with proprietary grow rooms that can produce high-quality vegetables at a low cost.

“We are actively pursuing partnerships with businesses, HNIs, and other retail farmers in Rajasthan, Delhi-NCR, and Maharashtra to establish such farms,” Singh and Kumar added road. Eeki Foods also claims that its technology can control the climate on farms, allowing vegetables to be grown year-round regardless of seasonal changes. The Agritech startup added that their patent-pending IoT control mechanism deployed on the farm makes operations less reliant on manual labour.

Anand Chandrasekaran, Partner at General Catalyst, said: “Eeki’s innovative India-centric cropping system and its unique business model are significantly impacting the lives and livelihoods of agricultural partners and consumers.” He added, “Amit and Abhay are making Building an important company with responsible innovation at its core.”

Anjali Bansal of Avaana Capital said: “At Avaana, we are delighted to be early believers and support Eeki’s vision of building climate-resilient farming systems. Eeki’s patent-pending technology revolutionises controlled environment farming at an affordable price. Produce high-quality staple vegetables.”

Earlier in February 2022, Avaana Capital led another funding round, and Eeki Foods raised $2 million from a group of investors to expand its business and upgrade its technology. Existing investors in the company include Livspace founder Ramakant Sharma, Fynd founder Harsh Shah, and CRED founder Kunal Shah, among others.

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The new Series A round also saw participation from investors such as Amazon Prime India director and head Subbu Palaniappan, Facebook former VP of engineering Srinivas Narayanan, Akhil Gupta, and NoBroker.com co-founder Amit Kumar Agarwal.