Climate tech platform Ecozen raises $25 mn to expand beyond agriculture

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IANS | 25 Jan, 2023
Pune-based climate-tech startup Ecozen on Tuesday raised $25 million in equity and debt capital in its Series C round, as it looks beyond agriculture to expand into new deep-tech fields worldwide.

The platform estimated that the market size for its sustainability focused technology stacks in India to grow to $25 billion by 2025.

The Series C equity portion was led by Nuveen and Dare Ventures (Coromandel International), with participation from Export-Import Bank of India (India EXIM Bank), and existing investors Caspian and Hivos-Triodos Fonds (managed by Triodos Investment Management).

The debt portion was provided by Maanaveeya Development and Finance, Oxyzo, Northern Arc group, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank.

The company has helped generate over 1 billion units of clean energy (kWh), saved over 20,000 metric tonnes of food loss and reduced over 1 million tonnes of GHG emissions.

"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," said Devendra Gupta, CEO and Co-Founder at Ecozen.

Ecozen said it has revolutionised cold chains (through its Ecofrost product line) and the irrigation industry (through its Ecotron product line), improving the incomes of 120,000 farmers and helping decarbonize agriculture.

It will now leverage Nuveen's experience in scaling impact-oriented businesses to augment its commercial offering, and the funding from India Exim Bank will support the Company towards its export-related activities.

The company is looking beyond the agricultural sector to accelerate the broader energy transition through its deeptech expertise in energy storage, motor controls, IoT and analytics.

"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.

Harsha Bangari, Managing Director at Export-Import Bank of India, said that Ecozen, with its innovative clean technology solutions, has potential in international markets.