NABVENTURES Closes ₹450 Cr First Close of ₹1,500 Cr Agri Fund II

NABVENTURES, the venture capital arm of NABARD, has announced the first close of its second fund at ₹450 crore, targeting a total corpus of ₹1,500 crore including a greenshoe option, with NABARD itself as the anchor investor.

Fund II will back early- to growth-stage startups across agritech, food and agribusiness, rural fintech, climate-smart solutions, and supply chain and logistics — essentially the full stack of Bharat's farm-to-market economy. The fund is expected to be among the largest dedicated pools of capital for rural and agri innovation in India.

The first close follows a track record: NABVENTURES' earlier funds have backed 23 enterprises, including Unnati, Eggoz, Beyond Snack, Jai Kisan and Aquapulse — names that have become fixtures in the agritech funding conversation over the last few years.

NABARD chairman Shaji Krishnan V said the fund is designed to deliver commercial outcomes alongside sustainability, climate resilience, financial inclusion and livelihood creation — positioning NABVENTURES as a development-finance institution that behaves like a venture fund, rather than the other way around.

For agritech founders, the timing is notable. Agriculture remains India's least-penetrated venture sector relative to its GDP weight, and a ₹1,500-crore institution-backed vehicle with patient capital changes the fundraising math for startups in precision farming, agri-fintech, and rural supply chains. NABVENTURES now has the deepest chequebook in the room for this thesis.