Neev Fund, SDG Fund invest $23 mn in agri-logistics firm Leap India

Agricultural warehousing and logistics company Leap India Food and Logistics has raised $23 million in a Series B round from Danish SDG Investment Fund, a fund managed by Investment Fund for Developing Countries (IFU), and Neev Fund.

The Coimbatore-based company will use the fresh capital for growth and expansion, it said in a statement.

The latest round takes the total capital raised by Leap India so far to $25 million. Neev Fund, an infrastructure private equity fund focussed on sustainable development, had invested an undisclosed amount in the company in April 2018.

Leap India aims to build modern food storage and logistics platforms for commercial organisations and the government.

“SDG Fund’s investment, along with round two of investment from Neev Fund, backed by the UK government’s Department for International Development and State Bank of India (SBI), will allow us to expand and reach a critical size, while at the same time, team up with strong foreign institutional investors,” the company’s promoters said in a statement.

Leap India was founded in 2017 by Nikhila Koneru, Rajeev Karthikeyan and Anurag Malempati. The company is engaged in the development of food storage and logistics infrastructure for the private sector and Food Corporation of India (FCI). It is currently developing seven locations for FCI under the PPP (public-private partnership) model.

IFU is a self-governed, state-owned Danish institution established in 1967 with an aim to promote investment, offer risk capital and provide advisory services to companies pursuing business in developing countries and emerging markets. IFU has invested in close to 1,300 projects across more than 100 countries. Danish SDG Investment Fund is a public-private partnership, in which the Danish state and pension funds collaborate to take up important social challenges.

“By investing in Leap, we are addressing one of India’s most pressing challenges, namely helping to improve food storage efficiency and reduce undernourishment, while having secured an attractive risk vs. return profile in the deal,” Deepa Hingorani, vice president for south Asia at IFU, said.

Neev Fund is backed by public-sector lender SBI and the UK government’s Department for International Development. Its mandate is to invest in eight low-income and developing states in India -- Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal -- with a focus on infrastructure sub-sectors such as renewable energy, agricultural supply chain, healthcare, education, urban infrastructure.