ⓘ Featured image: Intello Labs co-founders; from left: Devendra Chandani, Milan Sharma, Nishant Mishra and Himani Shah
The Gurugram, India-based agritech startup, Intello Labs on Wednesday (May 13) raised $5.9 million in a Series A round led by early-stage venture capital fund Saama Capital, with participation from Grow (Singapore) and SVG Ventures THRIVE (US) and existing investors Omnivore and Nexus Venture Partners.
The company has developed digital products utilising AI tools, computer vision and deep learning to monitor the quality and grade of fruits and vegetables.
Intello Labs at present has an attractive clientele that includes Reliance Fresh, Dole, Ocean Spray, and leading e-grocery companies in China and Southeast Asia. With the fresh funds, the company is planning to expand deeper into markets including China, Southeast Asia, and US.
Commenting on the investment round, Milan Sharma, co-founder & CEO of Intello Labs in a statement said,
“This funding will help us accelerate growth in international markets, specifically the US and across Asia Pacific. There has been a significant spike in interest from these markets over the past few months, which was further accelerated by covid-19, and now we have the firepower to go after these opportunities,”
Adding to which Kiranbir Nag, Partner at Saama Capital said,
“There is a rapid and growing need for better and faster quality assessment of fresh produce across the value chain, to improve the end consumers’ experience and to minimize the already high losses through wastage. Intello’s scalable and non-destructive AI-based digital suite of solutions is well placed to become an industry-standard tool especially for the large buyers of and traders in fresh produce,”
The company was founded in 2016 by Milan Sharma, Nishant Mishra, Himani Shah and Devendra Chandani. In March, 2019, Intello Labs raised $2 million in a seed round, from Nexus Venture Partners and Omnivore.
The company last raised $2 million in a seed round from Omnivore and Nexus last year. This makes the total disclosed funding for the company raised until date to $7.9 million.
