India Agri Business Fund backs Super Agri Seeds

"It's a well spread-out, diversified company and is not too dependent on cotton, and has a robust pipeline," Rajesh Srivastava, the private equity firm's chairman and managing director, told LiveMint.

Super Agri sells about 140 hybrid seeds to farmers and is in the process of forming joint ventures with European and Asian companies to further its research and development activities. It reported revenues of about INR750 million for the most recent fiscal year and expects to reach INR2.5 billion by 2014.

Ravi Srinivas, managing director of Super Agri, said the funds will be used to improve existing R&D centers in Hyderabad and Bangalore, strengthen marketing and distribution infrastructure, and create a state-of-the-art cotton and vegetable seed processing plant in Hyderabad.

The India Agri Business Fund was launched in 2008 with support from Rabobank, International Finance Corporation and FMO, the Netherlands development finance institution. It has $120 million in capital and has now invested nearly two-thirds of it in eight companies, including Global Green Group, LT Foods, Geepee Agri, Sri Biotech Laboratories and Vacmet India. The average deal size is $6 million.

Rabo is planning to launch a second fund, worth $250 million, later this year.

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• Topics
• Expansion
• Industrials
• South Asia
• Growth capital
• Agriculture
• India
• Rabobank Private Equity