Clover Bangalore

Clover Ventures was formed by childhood friends Avinash BR, Gururaj Rao, Arvind Murali, and Santhosh Narasipura, who grew up in Bengaluru, went their separate directions in the interim, and then returned to their hometown in 2017. The four-leaf ‘clover' plant is said to be a harbinger of good fortune, and the name is also an ode to the friendship shared by the four founders.

Avinash, Co-founder, and CEO, Clover, says

“The sheer unpredictability of the yield, the right time to sell the produce, and the complete absence of technology stood out for us. Our problem statement was if we could escape middlemen and grow fresh produce of a certain quality around the year in a controlled environment. We spoke to chefs, retailers, internet kitchens, and procurement teams to understand the market. What we realised is that to scale up vertical farming, we needed more greenhouses, India already had 20,000+ hectares of them. So, instead of building our own greenhouse, we decided to partner with farmers.''

The friends-turned-founders wanted to do some farming, but in an unconventional way, because they already had access to a huge land parcel. Avinash, who had previously worked at Aavishkaar, an early-stage venture capital company, was familiar with greenhouse farming (also known as indoor farming), which involves growing crops in regulated micro-environments.

Supply Chain Management

Clover works with local farmers to rate, package, and deliver their high-quality, greenhouse-grown fresh produce — lettuce, basil, spinach, coriander, zucchini, beans, cauliflower, and more — through both B2B and B2C networks. Clover's network of farmers usually holds one to two acres of farmland, which they cultivate according to demand using the company's full-stack agronomy solutions, usage prediction and traceability, and end-to-end farm management services. The company effectively organises the country's large number of dispersed greenhouse growers, promotes yield standardisation, increases production, and lowers costs. 

On the demand side, the main issues they had to address were consistency and year-round supply [of fresh produce].” For farmers, they addressed topics like what to grow, how to grow, and where to sell to. They also don't have to use pesticides or fertilisers when growing plants in a greenhouse. As a result, clover is also assisting farmers in producing healthier produce.”

Final Thoughts

“We believe Clover is establishing India's first fresh produce supply chain that is climate-change-ready. Clover can bring the best quality vegetables and fruits to B2B and B2C customers in India's largest metro areas by exploiting peri-urban greenhouses.” The growing understanding of the benefits of this form of farming over conventional farming methods is propelling the industry forward.