NABVENTURES plans to invest ₹30-70 crore per company in its second fund. The firm targets growth-stage businesses in agriculture, rural finance, and climate solutions. Managing director Vikas Bhatt said, “Agriculture and rural transformation remain at the core of our thesis.” The fund already got ₹450 crore in its first close.
Synopsis
NABVENTURES aims to invest ₹30-70 crore per company in agriculture, rural financial services, and climate solutions. The venture capital arm plans to focus on technology-driven businesses and growth-stage companies with established traction. Larger initial checks will be adapted for follow-on funding in high-performing portfolio companies. The emphasis will be on sustainable scaling in large markets, improving productivity, and raising farmers' incomes.
Kolkata: NABVENTURES, the venture capital arm of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), plans to invest ₹30-70 crore per company under its second fund, targeting growth-stage businesses across agriculture, rural financial services and climate solutions as it steps up its focus on technology-driven enterprises.
The fund, which has announced its first close at ₹450 crore against a target corpus of ₹1,500 crore, will primarily invest in Series A and later-stage opportunities, with larger initial cheques and the flexibility to participate in follow-on funding rounds for high-performing portfolio companies.
NABVENTURES aims to back businesses that can scale across large and growing markets while strengthening agricultural value chains, improving productivity, raising farmers’ incomes and building resilient rural enterprises. The investment strategy also covers emerging areas such as agri-biotechnology, deep-tech, the circular economy and the blue economy, with climate solutions receiving dedicated attention as an additional investment theme compared with Fund I.
“Agriculture and rural transformation remain at the core of our thesis, alongside opportunities in financial services, agri-value chains, rural enablers and climate solutions,” said Vikas Bhatt, managing director of NABVENTURES. The fund will target scalable businesses with differentiated propositions and strong execution capabilities, using the NABVENTURES and NABARD ecosystem to create sustainable impact and long-term value, he said.
Fund II’s emphasis on Series A and later-stage companies reflects its focus on businesses with a demonstrated growth trajectory, rather than ventures at the earliest stages of development. The fund will assess companies on the strength of their business models, unit economics, competitive differentiation, capital discipline and founding teams.
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“Fund II builds on our experience and insights from Fund I, with a sharper focus on identifying businesses that have the potential to scale sustainably in large and growing markets,” said Ashish Choudhury, chief investment officer at NABVENTURES.
The fund will also reserve capital for follow-on investments in selected portfolio companies that demonstrate strong performance and are positioned for their next phase of growth. This will allow NABVENTURES to support promising businesses beyond their initial funding rounds as they expand operations and market reach.
Alongside capital, NABVENTURES plans to draw on NABARD’s institutional relationships, sectoral expertise and rural network to help investee companies improve market access and scale their operations. Its investment approach spans agriculture and allied activities, agribusiness, agri-value chains, rural financial services and climate solutions.
The planned investment size is expected to help the fund diversify its portfolio while enabling closer engagement with investee companies, including strategic guidance beyond funding.
NABVENTURES’ earlier funds have collectively invested in 23 enterprises across agritech, aquaculture, food processing, rural development, financial services, supply-chain solutions, traceability and cold-chain infrastructure. Fund II seeks to build on that base, with a greater emphasis on growth-stage businesses that can combine commercial returns with measurable outcomes in sustainability, climate resilience, financial inclusion and livelihood creation.
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