Global Sustainability Venture Fund Bidra Raises $200 Million In Funding The initiative will expand Bidra's investment scope to include innovations in sustainable agriculture, energy, water, and other climate technologies with a focus on emerging markets like India, Africa, and others
By Teena Jose
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Bidra Innovation Ventures (Bidra) has announced a $200 million commitment by Morocco based, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) and the OCP Group. The initiative will expand Bidra's investment scope to include innovations in sustainable agriculture, energy, water, and other climate technologies with a focus on emerging markets like India, Africa, and others. This latest round of funding comes one year after Bidra launched a $50 million fund backed by the same investors focused on agriculture. In India, Bidra is an active investor in Niqo Robotics, a Bangalore based agricultural robotics start up focused on AI powered sustainable spot spraying technology.
"We are grateful for UM6P's visionary leadership and support as we continue to back innovators forging the future via sustainable technologies for Africa and beyond. Having OCP's support is a tremendous advantage because now we can extend OCP's regional know-how and distribution capacity to startups that are ready to scale. If you have technology that is ready for prime time, consider Bidra as a gateway to scaling your technology in India, Africa and beyond," said Amar Singh, head of group, Bidra Innovation Ventures.
Over the past year, Bidra has nurtured multiple breakthroughs in technology. They have supported several innovative sustainable tech companies including Niqo Robotics, an AI tech-driven company that reduces chemical volumes, Agrospheres, an ag-tech company developing environmentally friendly crop protection products, and Pattern Ag, that uses predictive analytics to customize crop fertility plans, according to a statement by the company.
"We are immensely proud of our association with Bidra through the past year. We have amazing synergies, and our partnership has empowered Niqo Robotics to scale our breakthrough sustainable spot spraying solution from lab to land and potentially revolutionize crop protection application in agriculture, worldwide," said Jaisimha Rao, founder and CEO of Niqo Robotics.
