Agritech Startup qZense Raises INR 4.5 Cr Seed Investment led by Venture Catalysts The company will use the fresh capital to bolster its expansion plans by scaling the team and accelerating its marketing efforts.

qZense Labs, a company focused on quality control and management of fresh produce, said on Wednesday it has raised INR 4.5 Cr seed investment led by Venture Catalysts, Manish Modi, MD, Mastermind Capital and Vedant Loyalka, chairman, Curae Health.

Idea stage accelerator VC 9Unicorns along with The Chennai Angels, Entrepreneur First, London based VC and Lumis Partners also participated in the round.

Founded in 2019 by women entrepreneur duo Rubal Chib and Srishti Batra, qZense provides end-to-end IOT-based solution for quality assessment and management of fresh produce. It leverages machine learning, NIR spectroscopy and artificial olfaction to provide real-time insights for quality assessment and management in fresh produce. These methods provide accurate qualitative grading of fresh food across supply chain to food retailers and businesses, the company claims.

Its software platform offers two products—Q-Scan, which is a scanning device for grading the internal quality and Q-Log, which comprises olfactory loggers responsible for measuring the quality of produce during storage and in logistics.

Commenting on what does the company plan to do with fresh funds Chib said, "We will leverage the capital infusion to bolster our expansion plans by scaling the team and accelerating our marketing endeavours."

"The digital boom has undeniably put the Indian agritech industry on the map. The space is witnessing new developments every day, each innovation addressing specific pain points in the sector. One such pain point is managing the quality of fresh produce and minimizing its wastage. qZense is aiming to address and resolve this pertinent issue by leveraging the power of digital technology," said Dr. Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, co-founder and president, Venture Catalysts and 9Unicorns.

K Chandran, CEO of The Chennai Angels added "This founding team is very competent with complimentary and highly complex skill sets. We believe that their solutions have the potential to optimize revenues and minimize wastage for all players in the agri food chain. We also see promising large use cases in harvesting of sugarcane and vanilla where non-destructive measurement of sugar content will hugely benefit the farmer community," said.

"We are glad to partner with Venture Catalysts and The Chennai Angels. Their support will enable us to take another step towards our vision of becoming a one-stop-solution for quality assessment of fresh produce,"Chib added.