The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has announced two new funds aimed at supporting agritech and climate technology startups, marking the second investment cycle through its subsidiary, Nabventures. Designed with technical support from Intellecap, part of the Aavishkaar Group, the funds also seeks to address structural gaps in climate and agri-financing.
The initiative includes the ₹1,000 crore NABARD Green Impact Fund (NGIF) and the ₹300 crore NABARD Carbon Fund (NCF), both scheduled to be launched in January 2026. The funds are intended to back startups working on climate adaptation, sustainable agriculture, and emissions reduction.
NABARD’s latest push into agritech and climate-focused startup financing forms part of a broader development strategy that combines venture capital with institutional strengthening across the rural economy. Alongside its startup-focused investments, the institution is continuing parallel efforts to reinforce cooperative societies and women-led self-help groups, aimed at expanding rural enterprise creation and improving access to credit.
The Green Impact Fund will be financed from NABARD’s profits, with interest income used to reduce borrowing costs for implementing agencies, including state governments undertaking climate adaptation initiatives such as crop diversification and water-efficient farming.
Meanwhile, NABARD Carbon Fund will focus on carbon developers and startups working on emissions mitigation and carbon capture areas that are capital-intensive and largely underserved by conventional financing mechanisms.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Sankalp Bharat Forum 2.0 in Lucknow, Santosh Singh, Managing Director and Partner at Intellecap, said that amid growing water stress, farmers are being encouraged to move away from water-intensive crops, but the transition involves significant upfront costs. Lowering the cost of finance, he added, could play a crucial role in enabling this shift.
NABARD is also in discussions with institutions such as the World Bank and the Gates Foundation to scale these funds through co-investment structures. The rural finance institution also plans to act as the anchor investor for a proposed Fund 2, likely to be launched within the current financial year, with NABARD contributing around 40 per cent of the total corpus. This fund will also retain a rural focus, spanning agritech and climate technology.
Aligning Technology, Credit and Farmer Income
Santosh Singh also noted that while higher farm output benefits consumers and markets through increased supply and lower prices, the success of agricultural transformation will ultimately depend on whether farmers themselves realise clear and tangible economic gains that justify adopting new technologies.
As part of a central government programme, NABARD is also digitising Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS). About 70,000 PACS have already been digitised, with data from nearly 12 crore members now available on a single platform. This consolidated dataset is expected to enable innovation through anonymised data access and regulatory sandboxes for rural problem-solving.
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According to NABARD Chairman Shaji K V, the strategy will focus on strengthening cooperative societies and working with around 95 lakh self-help groups (SHGs) to support enterprise creation and expand the role of cooperatives in rural credit. NABARD has backed more than 300 startups, approving ₹200 crore under the AgriSURE scheme, including ₹130 crore via Fund of Funds and ₹70 crore through direct investments, all targeted at early-stage ventures.
While research institutions, banks and governments play their respective roles through credit, subsidies and technology dissemination, the market will have to reward farmers adequately as well. Agtechs must work towards higher and more predictable income for farmers
Despite India having only about 2,800 DPIIT-recognised agritech startups, Singh noted that market interest in the sector is rising, although a stronger policy push will be required for solutions such as precision farming, processing, and value addition to scale meaningfully.
So far, NABARD has supported over 300 startups. Under the AgriSURE scheme, total approvals stand at ₹200 crore, with ₹130 crore sanctioned through the Fund-of-Funds route and ₹70 crore via direct investments. All investments have focused on early-stage companies, including Series A, with typical ticket sizes ranging from ₹20 crore to ₹25 crore per startup. Around 600 applications have been received to date.
Linking Cooperatives, Credit and Women Entrepreneurs
NABARD is placing particular emphasis on promoting female entrepreneurship. Through platforms such as Sahakar Sarathi, the institution is working to ensure secure data access while enabling loan product innovation for cooperatives.
India currently has around 95 lakh SHGs, most of them women-led, with nearly 45 lakh borrowing SHGs. NABARD plans to leverage this data to promote microenterprise creation under the National Rural Livelihood Mission, aiming for at least 50 per cent of new enterprises to be women-led.
By working with cooperatives on loan product development through Sahakar Sarathi, we are sure the share of cooperatives in agriculture credit will improve in the near term, perhaps within two years
By working closely with cooperatives on loan product development, NABARD expects the share of cooperatives in agricultural credit to rise meaningfully within the next two years.
Specific measures are being rolled out for self-help groups and cooperatives, with a focus on leveraging the ecosystem of nearly 95 lakh largely women-led SHGs. Data from around 45 lakh borrowing SHGs is being used to support micro-enterprise creation, reflecting a push toward job-led growth as a foundation for sustainable employment generation.
2 comments
Sir I have make a Agri -tec Start-up company which dehydrate organic fruits and vegetables by Solar Dryer. My company is ideation stage and DPIIT Registration Number is 118114. How can I get mentorship guidance and funding support for my Agri-tech Start-up.
It’s kind of huge interventions. I suggest NABARD should arrange orientation sessions across the states