Indian cold chain solutions provider New Leaf raises over $700 thousand

New Leaf, an India-based cold chain solutions provider has raised around $770,000 in equity funding in its pre-Series A round from Dustin Moskovitz, a US-based investor through his firm, Good Ventures LCC.

• The cold solution startup aims to use the raised funds to bolster India's cold chain infrastructure; an effort targeted at reducing post-harvest losses by replacing conventional compressor technologies with New Leaf's biomass-powered Made-in-India affordable and sustainable refrigeration technology.
• New Leaf is a cleantech-focused startup producing GreenCHILL, a carbon-neutral technology saving up to 40 tons of GHG emissions per year. Through its technology, it uses biomass and farm waste to provide sustainable refrigeration for micro farmers. It aims to strengthen and increase its product portfolio and make it accessible to more practitioners in India's cold chain space.
• The startup evolved from providing access to affordable refrigeration facilities across India to providing access to finance to end users– farmers and farmer producers by providing loan guarantees through various banks and financial partners on behalf of the farmers.
• Anath Aravamudan, Sector Lead at Villgrow Innovations through the Powering Livelihoods Programme which aims to promote clean energy-powered solutions in India, describes New Leaf's transition as moving to provide access to finance, storage advisory, and market linkages to farmer producer companies.
• New Leaf has been doubling its growth over the last two years and with this new funding, it looks to quadruple its growth by the end of the current fiscal year, it claims. It aims to support and improve the income and livelihoods of up to 200,000 small and marginal farmers in the next three years by filling the gap in the cold chain space in India.