Omnivore has announced the publication of its FY2020-21 Impact Reports, highlighting the progress made by Omnivore’s portfolio companies in driving agricultural prosperity, transforming food systems, and promoting climate sustainability across India.
Since 2011, Omnivore has been funding entrepreneurs building the future of agriculture and food systems. Omnivore’s investment portfolio features over 30 agritech startups, including DeHaat, Arya, Stellapps, Reshamandi, Bijak, AgNext, Intello Labs, GramCover, Aquaconnect, Animall, BharatAgri, DGV, Pixxel, and Fasal.
Omnivore defines itself as a “financial first” impact investor, seeking to deliver market-rate venture capital returns, while impacting the lives of Indian smallholder farmers and rural communities. Omnivore tracks the impact of its portfolio companies across four key themes: increasing farmer profitability, enhancing farmer resilience, improving agricultural sustainability, and catalyzing climate action. From the FY2020-21 Impact Reports, some of the highlights include:
· Omnivore portfolio companies have reached a total of 6.4 million Indian farmers
· Omnivore portfolio companies have provided Indian farmers with access to financial services (credit disbursed and insurance coverage) of over INR 8,000 crore
· Omnivore portfolio companies have created economic value of over INR 6,000 crore for Indian farmers by increasing their farm incomes and reducing their cost of cultivation
· Omnivore portfolio companies have helped save 7.4 billion litres of water, reduce 1.2 million tons of GHG emissions, and shift 1.3 million hectares of farmland to sustainable cultivation
On the eve of the launch, Mark Kahn, Managing Partner, Omnivore, said, "The pandemic revealed the resourcefulness of agritech startups in keeping smallholder farmers afloat and agricultural value chains functional. In the coming decade, the agritech sector will play a critical role in making farming more profitable, resilient, sustainable, and climate-proof. On the heels of a challenging and transformative year, our impact reports highlight the progress made by our portfolio companies in improving Indian agriculture and the lives of 6.4 million farmers in our ecosystem."
Jinesh Shah, Managing Partner, Omnivore, observed, "Our portfolio companies have shown great perseverance in solving legacy issues in Indian agriculture and paving the way for a more climate-resilient future. The latter is especially necessary given India’s high degree of vulnerability to climate change. Our impact reports are a testimony to what impact venture capital can achieve. We remain focused on our goal of making agriculture a sustainable and profitable business for 130 million smallholder farmers of India.”
To support Omnivore’s impact focus, Sandeep Mukherjee was recently hired as VP - Impact & ESG. In this role, Sandeep will lead impact measurement and reporting processes, in addition to overseeing Omnivore's environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices and procedures. Sandeep was most recently a Vice President at RBL Bank, where over the past six years he was instrumental in setting up environmental and social risk management systems as well as sustainability reporting. Prior to that, Sandeep served as an Assistant Vice President at the Environmental Management Center (EMC). He is a postgraduate in Environmental Management from IISW&BM and holds a BA from Asutosh College, Kolkata.
