Tessol Raises Follow-on Equity Funding

Tessol, a Mumbai-based start-up in the CleanTech-led cold chain logistics space, has raised an undisclosed amount in follow-on equity funding from early stage venture capital firm 1Crowd, and existing investors Infuse Ventures and Ankur Capital.

Founded by IIT Delhi - Harvard alumnus Rajat Gupta, Tessol aims to revolutionize the cold chain distribution in India using its proprietary "Energy Storage" technology-based solutions. These products and solutions, while being environmentally sustainable, reduce the lifetime cost of cooling by more than 50%, therefore, making a cold chain on low-value products viable.

Over the last few years, Tessol has developed solutions ranging from farm level collection to home delivery and works with the largest FMCG, food processing and e-commerce players in India. Funds raised in this round would be utilized by Tessol for strengthening the current product suite and bringing some disruptive products that were under development to pilot and commercialization.

"There are huge gaps in the Indian food supply chain and while there are several cold chain products available in the market, there is a dearth of viable solutions. At Tessol, we believe in partnering with our customers and working out system level solutions that can drastically impact costs while improving the performance," said Rajat Gupta, CEO of Tessol, who has several years of past industry experience.

"We see Tessol occupy a sweet spot at the intersection of India's underserved cold chain architecture and a vacuum in environmentally-friendly clean energy solutions. Tessol's farm-to-fork product range serves myriad use cases, application segments and customer profiles, and the breadth and depth of their client roster bear ample testimony to the efficacy of their innovation-driven offerings," said Anil Gudibande, co-founder of 1Crowd.

"Tessol is one of the very few innovation-driven cold chain product companies. With their superior energy-efficient technology, already adopted by many marquee clients across industries, the company is well-positioned to service the growing demand for cold chain infrastructure," said Amber Maheshwari, Vice PresidentatInfuse Ventures.

"We are excited about the rapid growth in Tessol's range of cost-efficient, high-performance cold-chain solutions, which is bringing in new, quality-conscious customers across end-user segments. We believe TESSOL's technology can, over the longer-term, aid significant reduction in losses in the agri/food chain from the current high levels," said Krishnan Neelakantan, Senior Directorat Ankur Capital.

1Crowd is an early stage investor and has made over 15 investments in areas such as FinTech, healthcare, education, consumer, enterprise technology and deep technology (including BioTech, NanoTech and CleanTech).1Crowd recently announced the first close of its maiden venture capital fund. Setup by IIMA's Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE), Infuse Ventures is a sustainability- and energy-focused early-stage incubation and venture fund supporting entrepreneurs across renewables, resource efficiency and other sustainability domains. Infuse Ventures is backed by Government of India's Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) and Technology Development Board, IFC, BP, Godrej Industries, ICICI Bank, SIDBI, Bank of India and Union Bank.

Ankur Capital is an early stage venture capital fund investing in opportunities created by rising aspirations and digital access for the next billion Indians. Ankur Capital looks for innovative business models that can address core challenges in agritech, food, healthcare, skill development and education among others.