Nutreco to take on full ownership of India-based Eruvaka, an aquaculture focused IoT company.
Founded in April 2012 in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, in India, by entrepreneur, Sreeram Raavi, the startup develops cloud-based aquaculture pond management solutions, including real-time monitoring and smart feeders. Technology features include automatic and intelligent sonic feeding, alerts, pond diagnostics, data recording, analytics and automation.
Nutreco said the 100% stake in the Indian platform will enable its aquaculture business line, Skretting, to deliver in-house on-farm software and smart equipment to aquaculture farmers around the world to increase their productivity and reduce the risk for their operations.
The firm’s technology has been integrated into Skretting’s offering for clients in Latin America since 2018, with Nutreco saying that move has enabled farmers to reduce production costs and increase yield and sustainability parameters, while significantly reducing their risk.
Carlos Miranda, MD of Skretting LatAm, said: “Eruvaka became part of our Skretting 360+ value proposition in 2018, supporting the precision feeding and farm management pillars of the program. Together with Skretting premium extruded diets and Skretting technical support, this enabled shrimp farmers to maximize their results and improve their production performance, considerably increasing growth and survival, and reducing the average FCR and cost by 26%.”
Sustainability in the feed-to-farm value chain
Since 2019, Nutreco has made over 10 investments across Asia, Latin America, Australia, Europe, and the US. Such outlay, it said, reflects its commitment to support innovative new technologies that advance sustainability across the feed-to-farm value chain.
Late last year the group teamed up with another Indian digital startup, this time one focused on the dairy sector. Trouw Nutrition, Nutreco’s animal nutrition business line, initiated a long-term nutritional partnership in December 2021 with India’s Stellapps, a farm-to-consumer dairy digitization service provider, aimed at improving productivity, quality and ensuring traceability in the dairy supply chain.
Founded in 2011 by five technology industry veterans who believed that IoT could transform rural India, its end-to-end digitized model is deemed to be a game-changer for Indian dairy farmers by Trouw Nutrition CEO, Saskia Korink. “By partnering with Stellapps we can expand our reach in India and offer solutions to help to increase milk quality and yield for dairy farmers.”
The deal means that nearly three million smallholder farmers using that technology in 36,000 villages across India gain access to Trouw Nutrition’s premixes and feed additives to support animal health, productivity, and milk yield.
The partnership followed a 10-month pilot whereby 5,500 farmers in India used those products, and also received mentoring and training. It resulted in improved farm outputs, such as milk yield and profitability, said the Dutch company.
Stellapps completed the first close towards its pre-series C round in October last year - that was led by Nutreco, alongside other investors.
