Ecozen, which provides solar-powered irrigation and cold chain storage solutions, has raised $25 million in a fresh funding round led by Nuveen. The Pune-based startup will use the funds to boost its sales and marketing teams in Southeast Asia and Africa.
The round included participation from the Export-Import Bank of India (India EXIM Bank) and existing investors Caspian and Hivos-Triodos Fonds. Maanaveeya Development and Finance, Oxyzo, Northern Arc Group, HDFC Bank, and Axis Bank provided the debt.
Early investors Omnivore and IFA exited partially in this round. Ecozen has created products that replace diesel water pumps and fossil-fuel-powered coolers, improving drought resiliency for smallholder farms and increasing farmer income.
With its proven expertise in delivering climate-smart technology solutions while remaining profitable, the deep tech solution startup will exponentially expand its impact globally and beyond agriculture.
Using the tech stack, it has created agricultural products such as the solar-powered pump controller Ecotron and the solar-based cold storage solution Ecofrost.
According to the company, these solutions have contributed to the generation of over one billion units of clean energy (kWh), the prevention of over 20,000 metric tonnes of food waste, and the reduction of over one million tonnes of GHG emissions.
Ecozen intends to leverage its technologies in other industries with the planned product line expansion. One area where it wants to use its motor control technology is mobility.
Ecozen provides climate-smart technology solutions
Ecozen, founded by Devendra Gupta, Prateek Singhal, and Vivek Pandey of IIT Kharagpur, creates climate-smart deeptech solutions for motor controls, IoT, and energy storage.
The company is broadening its product offerings beyond agriculture to include energy storage, motor controls, IoT, and analytics. Ecozen anticipates that India’s market for innovative technology stacks will reach $25 billion by 2025.
“As we expand beyond India and agriculture, we will continue to focus on profitable growth and sustainable technology solutions. Ecozen will aggressively expand production capacity and product range,” Devendra Gupta, CEO and Co-Founder of Ecozen, said.
Nuveen, a pioneer in global impact investing, stated that it seeks companies that mitigate climate change, build resilience to its effects, and provide high-quality, low-cost products and services to low-income consumers.
“Ecozen has built products that do all three simultaneously – replacing diesel water pumps and fossil-fuel dependent coolers, improving drought resiliency for smallholder farms, and increasing farmer incomes. With Ecozen’s proven expertise in delivering climate-smart technology solutions while maintaining profitability, together we will exponentially grow their impact globally and beyond agriculture,” said Rekha Unnithan, Managing Director and Co-Head of Private Equity Impact Investing at Nuveen.
There has never been a greater need for long-term solutions. From renewable energy to sustainable agriculture, Indian startups are poised to lead the way in developing innovative solutions to mitigate the effects of climate change and build a more sustainable future.
Enzia Ventures, a modernized mid-market venture capital firm, recently forecasted that India will attract $20 billion in climate-tech investments by 2030.
