Karat Farms―a Bengaluru based smart kitchen garden company has raised an undisclosed pre-seed funding from Vriksh Impact Partners (VIP) to accelerate business growth, to make garden to table food a reality and to underpin the sustainability of plant-based businesses in India.
It plans to use the raised investment to acquire more customers and build the product. It also aims to create a sustainable future where we can exist in harmony with nature through plant-based living. Notably, the investors and founders connected during the lockdown and conducted the whole fundraising process 100% remotely.
“Karat Farms was born out of an urge to give power back to the people. A kitchen garden at home brings tremendous impact right from nutrition, mental health, connecting with nature and our food. The funding will enable it to grow from seed to a tree. Wherever appropriate, we will leverage our extensive national and international network to make introductions and bring in subject matter experts from around the world to help support Karat Farms. Our focus is to ensure impact creation and a strong sustainability focus in all the deals we undertake,” said Prerna Goel, Co-Founder & Director of VIP.
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Karat Farms’s vision is to make kitchen gardening accessible, available and repeatable. And to support such vision and ideas, VIP is combining its expertise in strategic direction setting, operations, financial management, food, nutrition, and health to offer advisory and investment support to plant-based businesses based in the Indian subcontinent to scale and sustain.
It is noteworthy that Karat Farms was incubated in NSRCEL which is a leading startup incubation centre in India powered by IIM Bangalore. “The incubation program at NSRCEL helped us in effectively articulating the story behind Karat Farms and made it easier to raise funds and get investors excited about the idea and its potential. It has given us the clarity to strategize, budget, and hire talent. We hope that after incubation, we continue to attract talent, build a seamless product for our users and focus on our value proposition,” said Quraishy Yousuf, Co-Founder of Karat Farms.
