Omnivore Partners, an agtech-focused Indian venture firm, is eyeing a final investment from its debut fund and will begin raising its second fund early next year.
Jinesh Shah, founding partner at Omnivore, told Agri Investor that the firm’s first fund has made 11 investments and is looking to bring its total to 12, at which point it will be fully invested and the firm will move into fundraising mode.
“We are raising follow-on rounds for [existing] companies in the next one or two quarters. Once we have a few mark-ups on our first fund we’ll make formal approaches [to investors] in the first quarter of next year.”
Shah said the firm will target up to $70 million (€62 million) for Fund II, a significant increase on its $43 million Fund I, but will be unlikely to raise more than that. “We don’t want $100 million because we don’t want the pressure of investing if the opportunities aren’t right.”
Omnivore’s most recent investment was in Retigence Technologies, an agri data solutions and analytics company. The size of Omnivore’s investment in the Series A round was not disclosed, but it is understood to represent an equity stake of around 25 percent in the company.
In recent months a number of venture firms have announced plans to raise agtech funds focused on India, but Shah says he is not concerned by the increasing competition. “Agtech was under-represented in India. More people coming in will bring in more entrepreneurs and more opportunities for everyone,” he said.
Omnivore previously told Agri Investor that family offices and high net worth individuals account for half of the investor base while institutional investors account for the remainder. All are India-based, but the firm plans to attract overseas institutional investors for its second fund.
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