British International Investment

Omnivore Agritech & Climate Sustainability Fund III

IndiaSouth AsiaCommunications & IT servicesFood & AgricultureManufacturing

The Fund invests in breakthrough technologies for the Indian agriculture and food sector with the aim of increasing smallholders’ profitability and resilience, improving agricultural sustainability and catalysing climate action.

Our investment

Description of the investment.

This investment is part of our strategy to (i) support the local entrepreneurial ecosystem in our markets in order to build new businesses which create jobs, and; (ii) provide us access to early-stage companies that have the potential to create transformational impact at scale.

Omnivore supports the growth of early-stage companies in agriculture and food systems in India, that are improving farmer profitability, enhancing their resilience, improving overall agriculture sustainability, and catalysing climate action.

Impact information

Applies to investments made from 2019 onwards. The tabs in this section define what we expect to achieve through the investment, assessing the potential impact of the investment against six dimensions of impact. You can find more details on our methodology of assessing impact here.

What?

Impact

Direct: Promote economic growth and productivity for smallholder farmers (SDG 8.1, 8.2).

How?

Primary Secondary

Direct: By investing in companies that are enabling the following for smallholder farmers:

1) Improving smallholder farmers’ incomes by: a) reducing farming costs by providing precision advisory; b) reducing post-harvest distress sales by providing warehousing and storage infrastructure; c) providing higher prices at the farmgate; d) income diversification companies.

2) Improving smallholder farmers’ farm productivity through: a) precision advisory; b) integrated farmer services platforms that provide full stack offerings; c) propelling financial inclusion of smallholder farmers by providing access to credit, insurance, and neo-banking services.

Direct: Across Fund I and II, we found that Omnivore’s companies take different routes to sustainability across both mitigation and adaptation and resilience. Some of these include:

1) Mitigation: reduced greenhouse gas emissions by a) providing alternatives to chemical-based inputs; b) providing tailored recommendations from soil testing services and other advisory services; c) reducing food loss from setting up post-harvest infrastructure for warehousing and storage.

2) Adaptation and resilience: a) providing agronomic advisory to improve adaptability to climate change; b) income diversification through uptake of livestock rearing; c) improved resource use efficiency through precision agriculture.

Who?

Stakeholder Geography Characteristics
Farmers

India

We expect at least 30 per cent of the farmers served to be living below $6.85 per day [2017 PPP].

Planet

India

We expect at least 15 per cent of the fund to be invested in 'climate finance' eligible companies.

How much?

Scale Depth/Duration

Expected to reach millions of farmers

Depth: To date, Omnivore has: a) Reduced greenhouse emissions by 1.2 million metric tonnes; b) 0.9 million metric tonnes of food wastage avoided; c) 7.4 billion litres of water saved.

Related to adaptation and resilience, Omnivore has: a) Enabled climate insurance coverage worth $1 million; b) Disbursed loans worth $53 million.

Contribution/additionality

Contribution/additionality

Financial additionality: Our capital will help the fund reach its viable fund size.

Risk

Execution Risk

Impact score

Impact score (at point of investment)

The Impact Score is a tool to help us manage our performance against our strategic impact objectives. It is designed to incentivise investments that support our productive, sustainable, and inclusive objectives. You can find out more here.

The Impact Score is published for investments made from 2022 onwards. The Impact Scores are calculated at the point of investment. We publish the Impact Scores of new investments annually, once the information has been externally assured by an independent third party.

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Environmental and social information

  • Environmental and social summary

    A high-level description of the environmental and social aspects of the investment. This may include a summary of key environmental and social risks identified during environmental and social due diligence (ESDD); key elements of an environmental and social action plan (ESAP); or ways in which we plan to support the investee improve environmental and social standards, such as through their environmental and social management system (ESMS); as well as any other priority areas agreed with the investee.

  • Environmental and social risk

    A risk category rating, which indicates the level of environmental and social risk associated with an investment. For an explanation of the categorisations used, see here. We consistently provide an environmental and social risk category for all investments screened from 2023 onwards.

Environmental and social summary

We have agreed on an Environmental and Social Action Plan (ESAP) that is focused on improving the management of environmental and social risks throughout the investment cycle. This includes a revised approach to Environmental and Social Due Diligence (ESDD) that covers climate risks, safeguarding risks, and data security.

Environmental and social risk

Medium-Low

Reporting and Complaints Mechanism

The Reporting and Complaints Mechanism allows anyone outside BII to report alleged breaches of the business integrity or environmental and social provisions of BII’s Policy on Responsible Investing. This includes breaches made by BII, a BII investee, or a portfolio company of a fund in which BII has invested. The Reporting and Complaints Mechanism Rules are available here. Reports and complaints can be submitted by email to reportsandcomplaints@bii.co.uk or by mail. See more details on our Reporting and Complaints Mechanism here.

For any other general enquiries contact us at enquiries@bii.co.uk

  • Key facts

    First published

    When the investment was first published on the website database.

    :
    March 2024
    Last updated

    When the last quarterly update of the website database occurred.

    :
    June 2024
    Project number

    An identifier number shared by investments in the same project.

    :
    D5384
    Status

    The current status of the investment (green flag for active and red flag for exited).

    :
    Active
    Region

    The geographical region where the country is located. We currently invest in Africa, South Asia, South East Asia and the Caribbean. In 2023, BII’s investment mandate was extended allowing it to invest in regional funds linked to Ukraine, with the majority of activity expected to begin post-war. Investments outside these regions were made prior to 2012 under previous investment mandates.

    :
    South Asia
    Sector

    We prioritise those sectors that facilitate development and need our capital the most. Our priority sectors contribute towards many of the Sustainable Development Goals. They range from investing in the power infrastructure that will provide people with better access to electricity, to investing in financial institutions that direct capital to the individuals and businesses that need it the most.

    :
    Communications & IT services, Food & Agriculture, Manufacturing

    We provide capital in the following ways: directly – through direct equity, direct debt, guarantees and other non-intermediated financial instruments; and indirectly – principally through investment funds.

    For direct investments and fund investments, this is the date BII committed capital to the investments. This is typically the date on which legal agreements are signed by all parties.

    For the portfolio companies of our fund investments, this is the date (either the month or the quarter) on which the fund committed capital to the portfolio company.

    For direct equity investments, this is the date at which British International Investment exited the investment.

    For debt investments, this is the date at which the final debt repayment was made.

    For funds, this is the date at which the fund was terminated.

    For underlying fund investments, this is the date at which the fund manager exited the investment.

    The total amount committed, per financial instrument, per investment, on the date BII becomes subject to a binding legal obligation to provide funding or assume a contingent liability. This information is provided in US dollars.

    For direct investments, this is the amount that BII has committed to the business or project. For fund investments, this is the amount BII has committed to the fund.

    The currency in which the investment was made.

    Investment type :
    Fund
    Start date :
    December 2023
    Amount :
    $10m
    Currency of investment :
    INR
    Fund Manager:
    Omnivore Capital Management Advisors
    Domicile

    The company or investment fund’s place of incorporation.

    :
    India
    Climate finance

    Indicates whether the investment is climate finance qualified or partially climate finance qualified and the type of climate finance (adaptation, mitigation or both). We define climate finance using the multilateral development bank (MDB) and the International Development Finance Club (IDFC) Common Principles climate finance methodology. See Common Principles for Climate Mitigation Finance Tracking and Common Principles for Climate Change Adaptation Finance Tracking. We provide the climate finance qualification and type for commitments from 2020 onwards, which is when we launched our Climate Change Strategy.

    :
    Partially qualified
    Climate finance type:
    Dual

Investments made by this fund into companies:

For further information about these companies, visit https://www.omnivore.vc/

Investment name Country Region Sector Start date Status
Ecozen Solutions Private Limited India South Asia Infrastructure June 2024 Active
Niqo Robotics (TartanSense) India South Asia Food and agriculture June 2024 Active
Sids Farm Private Limited India South Asia Food and agriculture June 2024 Active
Stellapps Technologies Private Limited India South Asia Communications & IT services June 2024 Active
Stellapps Technologies Private Limited India South Asia Communications & IT services June 2024 Active

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