The round also saw participation from existing investors Omnivore and Orios Venture Partners. Japanese cooperative bank, Norinchukin Bank also participated as a part of the round.
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The company plans to use the proceeds from the fundraise to strengthen its technology and science function, double down on its team strength, as well as invest in growing its supply chain.
The company is also looking to use the funds to enter newer geographies, including East Africa and Southeast Asia region over the next 18 months.
Founded in 2022 by Madhur Jain, Ankita Garg and Vishal Kuchanur, Varaha works with intermediaries and on-ground partners and NGOs to help reduce carbon emissions in farming practices, while helping large corporations gain carbon credits or carbon offsets in return.
As pressure increases on organisations to reduce carbon emissions, Varaha helps corporates offset their carbon emissions from everyday operations through helping farmers in India and neighbouring regions release lesser greenhouse gasses and implementing regenerative agriculture practices.
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On the agriculture side, the company works with farmers in Punjab, and western UP to – improve microbial strength of crops, abstain from burning of crop residue and improve microbial strength of soil through biological interventions. It also works with farmers in Nepal and Bangladesh, outside India.
“This is a ripe opportunity as India holds 164 million hectares of agricultural land area. The idea is to scale and identify the right cropping systems for farmer cohorts and reduce carbon emissions … We do the due diligence by contracting our own staff on ground which collect data and assess impact of our intervention practices,” said Jain, who is also the chief executive of the company.
Jain added that the company has been contracted to generate 230,000 carbon credits this calendar year and sells these credits to carbon credit marketplaces such as Klimate and Carbonfuture as well as corporates.
It has partnerships with six institutions including marketplaces at present.
The company looks to generate 1.2 million carbon credits by the end of FY25 and 2.8 million carbon credits in FY26.
“Varaha sits in the intersection of two of our big thesis around improving the lives of Indian farmers through technology as well as climate. Our thesis on climate tech is a progress from agritech. And we think climate will be the next big disruptive market globally,” said Galina Chifina, partner on RTP Global’s Asia investment team to ET.
Varaha will look to expand to six new geographies in the coming months and also double its headcount to over 100 team members in the upcoming fiscal.
