Omnivore Agritech & Climate Sustainability Fund III

Equity : July 2023

The SDG Frontier Fund has invested USD 2.5 M in equity in the Omnivore Agritech & Climate Sustainability Fund III, an Indian VC fund specialized in the Agritech sector. A follow-on investment of USD 1 M was signed in October 2023, bringing the total commitment to USD 3.5 M.

This is an investment by SDG Frontier Fund

Amount

$ 3,500,000.00

Type of investment

Equity

Development impacts

  • Local economic growth
  • Food security & rural development

Beneficiary locations

Asia: India

Investment field

Investment Companies & Funds

Activity

KK.64.300 SME Fund

Organisation

Omnivore Agritech & Climate Sustainability Fund III

Domicile

India

More investments in

Omnivore Agritech & Climate Sustainability Fund III

  • Equity $ 5,000,000.00 (2023)

Omnivore Agritech & Sustainability Fund III (OF3) is an Indian VC fund specialided in the Agritech sector (food, agriculture and the Indian rural economy). It is the Manager’s third fund and a direct successor to Omnivore Partners India Fund II (OF2), in which BIO has invested. Investment strategy and thesis remain the same i.e. supporting technological companies that deliver products and services having a disproportionate impact on the lives of farmers and rural communities in India.

The main difference with OF2 is the larger fund target size (USD 130 M), as well as a higher focus on life sciences and climate resilience.

Development impacts

  • Local economic growth

    The fund provides long-term growth capital to start-up companies developing innovative technologies for food, agriculture, and the rural economy.

    Omnivore’s focus is on platforms, data or innovative tech solutions, that can provide the necessary leverage to reach a larger market and impact a larger number of households/farmers.

  • Food security & rural development

    Omnivore’s investment/impact strategy targets smallholder agriculture and aims at increasing the profitability of smallholder farmers, the sustainability of smallholder agriculture and reducing the uncertainty borne by smallholder farmers.

    With an almost exclusive focus on food and domestic market-oriented agriculture, Omnivore investments contribute to the availability of food products in the local market, through increasing farmers' yield, reducing the cost of inputs and wastage, enhancing pricing transparency and building more efficient marketplace/technology platforms for trading agri-food products.

    OF3 is expected to be comparable with OF2 in terms of reach, which in 2021 impacted about a million smallholders’ lives and created USD 200 M+ of economic value to smallholder farmers, mostly through increased revenues and/or lower input costs.

E&S Impact

Together with BII and FMO, BIO will support the upgrade of Omnivore’s current Environmental and Social Management System (ESMS) that will strengthen the capacity of the fund manager to deal with its investees’ risks related to climate, gig economy, data security as well as general contextual and safeguarding risks. In particular, attention will be given to enhance the E&S governance for scaled up clients. Finally, the fund manager will formalize its commitment not to invest in fossil fuels and will upgrade its current grievance mechanism.

Situation at the time of investment

The fund manager has a good ESMS that allows it to identify and mitigate the E&S risks of its investees throughout all the steps of the investment cycle. In particular, all E&S due diligence are performed by an external consultant who also takes care of a monitoring audit 12-18 months after disbursement. Furthermore, Omnivore recently hired an experienced ESG & Impact lead that will support the fund manager on the E&S and Development topics.

Risk Category: B

Other investments by

SDG Frontier Fund

Read impact and news about this project

SDG Frontier Fund Final Closing

News

SDG Frontier Fund Final Closing

29-04-2022

First-of-its-kind Belgian impact fund mobilises additional private resources to support African and Asian SMEs in their growth.

Read more
Greener money

News

Greener money

31-08-2021

Money is getting greener. The superlative in sustainable investing today is "impact investing". A growing global market that is already worth more than $700 billion.

Article originally appeared in MT Magazine in Dutch.

Read more
Repousser les frontières des investissements durables

News

Repousser les frontières des investissements durables

15-12-2020

An interview with Luuk Zonneveld, An-Heleen De Greef & Eric Van den Bosch on the SDG Frontier Fund, published in L'Eventail on the 10th of December 2020, written by Cédric Boitte.

This article was published in French.

Read more
You'll never make the world sustainable with only public money

News

You'll never make the world sustainable with only public money

02-07-2020

Financial return is worth twice as much if it also helps the world move forward. The Belgian government and business world collect 50 million euros for sustainable investments in the African and Asian private sector. "Investing is better than giving," says driving force Alexander De Croo, Minister of Development Cooperation. "You will only see a return on your investment if it has really made a difference."

Read more
SDG Frontier Fund first closing

News

SDG Frontier Fund first closing

02-07-2020

First-of-its-kind Belgian impact fund brings together 9 private investors to support sustainable economic growth in African and Asian frontier markets.

Read more

View more of our investments in this region

candi solar

Infrastructure

candi solar

9,000,000.00

  South Africa, India

  31/07/2024

  Debt

EVN Finance Joint Stock Company

Financial Institutions

EVN Finance Joint Stock Company

 16,690.00

  Vietnam

  25/07/2024

  Subsidy

Mutual trust bank

Financial Institutions

Mutual trust bank

15,000,000.00

  Bangladesh

  27/05/2024

  Debt

Geuther Vietnam

Enterprises

Geuther Vietnam

27,771.00

  Vietnam

  23/04/2024

  Subsidy

TerraPay Payment Services

Financial Institutions

TerraPay Payment Services

10,000,000.00

  Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, Bangladesh, India, Philippines, Vietnam

  25/03/2024

  Debt

EVN Finance Joint Stock Company

Financial Institutions

EVN Finance Joint Stock Company

10,000,000.00

  Vietnam

  09/01/2024

  Debt

MAA General Assurance Phils Incl

Financial Institutions

MAA General Assurance Phils Incl

10,000,000.00

  Philippines

  15/11/2023

  Equity

Alterfin

Investment Companies & Funds

Alterfin

5,000,000.00

  19/10/2023

  Debt

Alterfin

Investment Companies & Funds

Alterfin

 21,500.00

  11/07/2023

  Subsidy