Odisha Dairy Startup Milk Mantra Raises $10Mn In Series D

Milk Mantra, a self-proclaimed small company with big ideas is milking the cow for all its worth. The startup will be looking to acquire more startups in the East of India along and greenfield projects.

The Odisha based dairy startup is reported to have raised a series D round of funding for 10 million dollars. It was led by the Neev Fund with the participation of Eight Roads Ventures and Aavishkaar. The funding round is said to be ongoing and not concluded as yet.

Neev Fund is in turn funded by the country’s largest lender, State Bank of India. Eight Roads Ventures and Aavishkaar have been investors of Milk Mantra in previous funding rounds as well.

Eight Roads Ventures was formerly known as Fidelity Growth Partners India. The previous series C round of 80 crores, led by Fidelity Growth Partners India and Aavishkar India II, enabled a group of angel investors and a preceding fund from Aavishkaar, named the Aavishkaar India Micro Venture Capital Fund to score an exit.

Milk Mantra will use the latest capital infusion to acquire high quality dairy startups from the east of India, where most of its business and manufacturing operations are currently dominant. CEO of Milk Mantra, Srikumar Misra is reported to have said they will be looking closely at dairy businesses from Jharkand, Chhattisgarh and Bengal, while even signalling at ventures into greenfield projects, most likely to mean renewable energy initiatives.

Hailing from Odisha, Milk Mantra currently has processing plants Gop, Konark, Hatibari and Sambalpur.

Milk Mantra’s range of dairy goods include their flagship brand, Milky Moo. Dahi, paneer, lassi, buttermilk, milkshakes and regular milk is all part of the portfolio. Under its ‘Ethical Milk Sourcing Programme’ the company works with over 35,000 farmers to ensure fair pricing for high quality dairy product sourcing.

Source: DAIRY NEWS OF INDIA