Copenhagen-based life sciences investor Novo Holdings has invested an undisclosed sum in Indian agritech player AgNext Technologies Private Limited to support the latter’s growth and international expansion.

The deal marks Novo Holdings’s first Asia investment in the planetary health sector that aims to drive the green transition. 

The latest funding is expected to support AgNext’s efforts to further the development of technologies for food quality assessments and enable the building of a team to scale product sales internationally and into new segments.

“We at AgNext have been focused on digitising food chains enabling greater transparency and profitability for stakeholders. We are delighted to welcome Novo Holdings as an investor. Their global outlook and deep sector expertise will be valuable in supporting our mission of consolidating and integrating the best technologies for building the next generation in global food chains,” said AgNext Technologies founder and CEO Taranjeet Singh Bhamra. 

AgNext Technologies was founded in 2016 and has operations in India and Abu Dhabi, UAE. 

According to the release, the company has built scalable models that provide fair pricing in food chains, usage of unadulterated crop inputs, quality-assessed procurement for businesses and consumption of safe unadulterated food across food chains notably in grains, pulses, oilseeds, spices and herbs.

“Asia offers compelling opportunities for Novo Holdings to scale up its investments in infrastructure within bio industrials and planetary health. By investing in these areas, we aim to support our companies in their growth and ambitions to make an impact on people and the planet,” said Deepa Hingorani, Partner, Planetary Health Investments, Novo Holdings Asia.

Novo Holdings is a holding and investment company that is responsible for managing the assets and the wealth of the Novo Nordisk Foundation. As of year-end 2023, Novo Holdings had total assets of EUR 149 billion.