Mumbai-based impact investor Ankur Capital has invested Rs 60 lakh ($89,000) in Suma Agro, a Chennai-based sustainable agro-input firm. This is the fifth investment by Ankur Capital so far from its Rs 40 crore maiden fund.
Email queries sent to Ankur Capital and Suma Agro didn't elicit any response.
Suma Agro, which was launched in 2011 by Krishnamoorthy Karthikeyan and Sumathi Balamurukan, offers humic-acid-based soil nutrient solutions, which, it claims, boost agricultural produce.
It operates a sole manufacturing plant near Chennai which boasts of a production capacity of 24 lakh litres.
The Economic Times, which first reported the development, said Ankur Capital has three more investments planned- one each in cold storage, agri inputs and healthcare sectors.
Launched by Ritu Verma and Rema Subramanian in 2012, the fund typically invests between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 4 crore in startups in agri-business, healthcare and education sectors.
An alumnus of Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India (ICWAI), Subramanian has three decades of experience in building and scaling operations across various sectors such as financial services, education, IT and packaging. Verma, who has a PhD in Physics from University of Pennsylvania, has earlier worked with Unilever, Philips and Truven.
Ankur Capital, which is investing out of Rs 40 crore fund raised from multiple Indian and overseas investors, has plans to invest in 10 startups in one year.
Last year, it invested an undisclosed amount in Chennai-based startup Skilveri Solutions Pvt Ltd.
Prior to that, it put Rs 50 lakh ($75,000) in convertible debt in Bangalore-based CropIn Technology Solutions Pvt Ltd, which provides a cloud-based platform to help farmers track their produce and consignment status.
Earlier, it has invested Rs 50 lakh each in Daily Dump, a Bangalore-based waste management startup and Assam-based ERC Eye Care.