Inficold Raises INR 6.5 Cr From RVCF And Other Investors The funds raised will be utilized to expand the overall manufacturing, sales, and servicing capabilities by the company
By Prabhjeet Bhatla •
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The Noida-based cold chain startup Inficold India Pvt. Ltd., supported by Shell Foundation, which provides cold storage solutions, announced on Friday to have raised INR 6.5 crore in a funding round led by RVCF and other undisclosed high net worth individuals as a part of their pre-Series A fund closure.
The funds raised will be utilized to expand the overall manufacturing, sales, and servicing capabilities by the company.
Founded in 2015, the startup has said to have developed a retrofittable thermal energy storage technology for storing cooling in a low-cost medium such as water to ice. The technology is said to be designed to use solar electric energy to make ice, and later use it for cooling purposes.
The current product portfolio consists of modular cold storage, instant milk coolers, and bulk milk coolers. It provides round the clock cooling with seven hours of grid/solar power. The modular cold storage units store 5-100MT of farm produce in the 4-16C temperature range, where as milk coolers cool 200-10,000L of milk on a daily basis, the statement said.
"We are delighted to receive funding from RVCF and other investors. We had started Inficold with the mission to utilize the immense potential of cold chain solutions to increase the output of Indian agriculture. Over the last year, the accelerated growth that we have seen is clear evidence of the viability of our business model. RVCF also believes in the potential of cold chain solutions to transform Indian agriculture. We are thankful for their support," shared Dr. Nitin Goel, co-founder, and chief executive officer, Inficold.
The company's future vision is to permeate in dairy, horticulture, poultry, meat, cold logistics, and air conditioning segments across India.
The company has installations in more than 17 states of India with a strong presence in North-Eastern states including Assam, Meghalaya, and Tripura. The startup has said to have to ramp up its production capacity by over ten-times. The increased capacity will allow the company to cater to the demand with a minimized lead time for the customer. Its in-house research and development (R&D) centre is also developing other sustainable cooling solutions in air-conditioning space.
"Inficold is focusing on energy-efficient cold chain solutions across India and other markets and has developed innovative products catering to the persistent problems of food wastage and distressed sales. We are excited to collaborate with Nitin and Himanshu in their journey," added Gaurav Chowdhry, vice president, RVCF.
The company is partnering with multiple channel partners to strengthen the local presence in sales, marketing, and installation. The startup has also started leveraging the international market and has few installations in the African subcontinent and expects sales of over 1000 units in the next two years with a focus towards providing sustainable cooling solutions for farm-level cooling in the agriculture segment.
