Patna-based Ergos had announced an investment of Rs 35 crore in its Series A round from Avishkar Bharat Fund (ABF) in April. The company had allotted convertible debentures worth Rs 20 crore to ABF earlier this year. The ongoing round could see it raise as much as Rs 80 crore.
The company provides farmers a platform that operates similar to a bank, but for grains, offering facilities for storage, digitisation, credit and liquidation. The startup said it works with small farmers, and over the past five years has been able to help them improve their incomes.
Kishor Jha, founder and CEO at Ergos said, “We are building the Ergos Grainbank to serve small and marginal farmers by leveraging technology and data sciences to disrupt the way farmers deal with their produce. We intend to rapidly scale our geographic footprint…at over 2,000 Grainbank locations over the next few years.”
TCM Sundaram, founder and MD at Chiratae Ventures said, “Ergos is bridging the large gap between the selling price of produce and the realisation of farmers at the farm-gate by using technology to facilitate credit and market linkages to the grains stored with it, Ergos is expected to capitalise on its early lead to become a market leader that creates sustainable development to the farmers’ life.”
The company said it currently supports over 20,000 farmers on its platform and has a physical presence in over 60 locations across the state of Bihar. It also provides farmers with a post-harvest supply chain solution that utilises technology to ensure seamless delivery.
Ergos was backed by Avishkar in 2016 when it was in the ideation stage. At present, Ergos claims to have close to 30,000 farmers registered on the platform who have sold Rs 125 crore worth produce.