Elevate Foods, South Asia’s first company dedicated to uplifting Indian farm-gate processors and facilitating their access to global markets, announced that it has raised US$525,000 in a pre-seed funding round led by Singapore-based climate-focused investors Wavemaker Impact (WMi). The investment underscores Elevate Foods' commitment to harnessing the cross-border trade opportunity for agri produce, empowering Indian processors with enhanced quality management tools and market insights.
India's agricultural landscape boasts more than 2.5 million small-scale farm-gate processors, yet many struggle to access overseas markets due to limited resources and stringent quality standards abroad. Elevate Foods aims to bridge this gap, enabling Indian processors to tap into the vast potential of global markets as per the government's push to increase processed food exports, thereby uplifting local economies and driving positive social impact.
A staggering one-third of all food produced globally is lost or wasted annually, amounting to a staggering US$1 trillion in economic losses. This makes addressing food loss at its source paramount to meet India’s–and the world’s–food security goals. Elevate Foods' innovative approach intervenes at the source of the produce, promoting farm-gate food processing to bolster sustainability and reduce waste while providing the processors the tools and support needed to meet quality standards to access international markets.
"We are thrilled to announce the successful closure of our pre-seed funding round with the backing of Wavemaker Impact," said Gayatri Bhatia, CEO and Founder of Elevate Foods. "This investment marks a significant step towards our mission of empowering Indian farm-gate processors to bring our produce to the world, whilst fostering a more sustainable and resilient food ecosystem."
"We see immense potential in Elevate Foods' creative approach of working through uplifting Indian farm-gate processors to tackle the trillion-dollar food waste issue, which today is the source of more than 4.5 Gigatonnes of Carbon Dioxide Emissions Equivalent (GtCO2e)," said Quentin Vaquette, Founding Partner at Wavemaker Impact. "By addressing the challenges faced by processors through greater profit-purpose alignment, Elevate Foods is poised to unlock new opportunities that will drive meaningful change in both the agricultural and food processing sectors."
“Gayatri’s deep experience across the various food-related sectors, coupled with her deep passion for socio-climate impact, is a potent combination to realise Elevate Foods’ potential in becoming South Asia’s largest food processing platform for small-to-medium enterprises. We're excited to lead this investment in Elevate Foods.”
In alignment with Elevate Foods' mission, The Asian Food Factory, a regional food distribution agency with its own supermarket chain, ‘Bazaar’, across Singapore and other parts of Southeast Asia, expressed enthusiasm for the partnership.
"We are excited to collaborate with Elevate Foods to bring high-quality Indian agri produce to international markets under our private labels," said Abhay Sharma, CEO. "Their commitment to enforcing quality norms and empowering local processors perfectly aligns with our vision of fostering sustainable cross-border trade."
Embracing transparency, traceability, and sustainability, Elevate Foods is poised to revolutionize the traditional paradigms of food processing. By forging strategic partnerships and empowering Indian processors, Elevate Foods aims to emerge as a catalyst for change in the global agricultural landscape.
Cover photo: Gayatri Bhatia & team Elevate Foods in conversation with representatives from Prakriti Organics Farmer Producer Organization in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, India
