ePlanet Ventures Backs Indian Agrochemical Co

Sree Ramcides Chemicals, an Indian agrochemical company focused on crop protection and plant health, has raised an undisclosed amount of VC funding from ePlanet Ventures.

 

PRESS RELEASE

ePlanet Ventures, the world’s leading global venture capital firm headquartered in Silicon Valley, California, announced an investment in one of the India’s leading agro chemical companies, Sree Ramcides Chemicals Private Limited. The Company’s products are primarily used in the crop protection and plant health & nutrients space.

 

“We believe that Indian agro companies will significantly grow in the coming years in spite of the global recession due to increasing food demand, lower usage of crop chemicals and lower crop acreage,” says ePlanet Ventures Managing Director, Chandrasekar Kandasamy. “Ramcides, being one of the leaders in the manufacture of crop protection chemicals and plant health & Nutrients segment, is well positioned to address this growth opportunity.”

 

Speaking on the occasion, R.Padmanabhan, Managing Director of Ramcides said, “India is the 4(th)largest agrochemicals producer after USA, Japan and China. Ramcides has a growing presence in the crop protection and plant nutrient sectors. ePlanet Ventures’ investment will help us to grab growth, expand our manufacturing facilities and enter into new areas like micro nutrients.”

 

“Ramcides exemplifies our strategy of investing in companies with a potential to become category-dominant leaders. With presence all across India, Ramcides is best positioned to expand and develop with the growing India agro market.” commented Asad Jamal, Chairman and CEO of ePlanet Ventures. “We are very pleased to add Ramcides to our global portfolio.”

 

ABOUT EPLANET VENTURES

 

ePlanet Ventures is a leading global venture capital firm headquartered in Silicon Valley, with international offices in London, New Delhi, Bangalore, Shanghai, and Beijing, as well as a presence in Hong Kong, Seoul and Tokyo. ePlanet Ventures has funded over 80 innovative high-growth companies world-wide, including landmark deals Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU), Skype (sold to eBay for approx. US$3B in 2005), and Focus Media (NASDAQ: FMCN). ePlanet is one of the leaders in promoting the cross-border migration of technological innovation, business models and entrepreneurship. The Firm has made investments in sectors such as the Internet (consumer Internet, Internet services and applications), wireless communications and applications, VoIP and other broadband services, entertainment, semiconductor design, life sciences and other emerging services sectors. ePlanet also seeks to make investments in traditional, established industries where business-model improvements have the power to create category-dominant companies in the world’s fastest growing markets. The firm has won the China Venture Capital Association Exit of the Year 2005 for Baidu, and the European Venture Capital Association Deal of the Year 2005 Award for Skype, and has been profiled in FORBES Feb. 2007 as a “Pioneer in Global Venture Capital.” Asad Jamal, Chairman and CEO of ePlanet Ventures was recently profiled in FORBES MIDAS List 2008 as a top 10 venture capitalists in the world.

 

ABOUT RAMCIDES

 

Ramcides (www.ramcides.com) is an Agro solutions company based in India, with presence in both the crop protection and crop health segment for more than 35 years. Its 3 manufacturing facilities at Pudukkottai, Chennai & Jammu, are engaged in the manufacture of agro inputs such as herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, etc and plant nutrients across various crops all over India and in more than 10 countries. The Company’s Plant Health products facilitate the absorption of nutrients and improve the plant health by increasing the resistance to diseases and pests in plants, thereby leading to increased crop yields. The Company has a continuing in-house R & D program based on active / current market feedback & field trials and has applied for patenting 8 of its products in the plant health segment. The Company has recently diversified into Public Health Division and introduced a flagship product, a pesticides free aerosol mosquito repellant spray, developed by DRDO. Future growth is expected from increased penetration of current products and from initiatives such as new products and marketing tie-ups.