Plans to take full ownership of the company in 2023
Nutreco will increase its stake in Eruvaka to 93.7%, from 25.45% in 2018. The acquisition of a controlling majority stake will enable Nutreco’s aquaculture business line Skretting to deliver in-house, on-farm software and smart equipment to shrimp farmers around the world to increase their productivity and reduce the risk for their operations. Nutreco’s plan is to gain full ownership of Eruvaka in the course of 2023.
Founded in April 2012 in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, India-based Eruvaka develops cloud-based aquaculture pond management solutions, including real-time monitoring and smart feeders. Technology features include automatic and intelligent sonic feeding, alerts, pond diagnostics, data recording, analytics and automation.
Nutreco’s original stake of 25.45% in a commercial partnership was designed to help scale Eruvaka.
“I am delighted that Nutreco is taking a majority stake in Eruvaka,” said Nutreco CEO Fulco van Lede. “Our purpose of Feeding the Future drives us to invest in innovative technologies that improve the sustainability of our food supply chain. This investment demonstrates our commitment to supporting aquaculture farmers in incorporating smart solutions that make their business more productive and efficient.
“We are grateful to everyone whose expertise and vision brought Eruvaka to where it is today, in particular, the company’s dedicated employees, its most valuable asset; its founder Sreeram Raavi, who not only invented the original concept but whose vision and drive brought it successfully to market; and aqua/agritech-focused private equity firm Omnivore, whose early belief and investment in the company was instrumental to its growth. We are looking forward to further developing and growing Eruvaka together with its great team of employees.”
Eruvaka CEO Kunal Choudhary said: “Eruvaka has formed the basis for the exceptionally successful Skretting 360+ concept. We have been able to work with farmers to reduce uncertainty, provide peace of mind, increase productivity and reduce risk.”
This technology has been integrated into Skretting’s offering for clients in Latin America since 2018 and has enabled farmers to reduce production costs and increase yield and sustainability parameters, while significantly reducing their risk.
“Eruvaka became part of our Skretting 360+ value proposition in 2018, supporting the Precision Feeding and Farm Management pillars of the program,” said Carlos Miranda, managing director of Skretting LatAm. “Together with Skretting premium extruded diets and the Sketting technical support, this enabled shrimp farmers to maximize their results and improve their production performance, considerably increasing growth and survival, and reducing the average FCR and cost by 26%. We are proud of supporting our farmers and the market growth in LatAm in this way and are committed to continuing this journey with our customers to pursue continuous improvement of efficiency and sustainability through innovation and digitalization.”
Since 2019, Nutreco has made more than 10 investments across Asia, Latin America, Africa, Australia, Europe and North America, reflecting its ongoing commitment to support innovative new technologies that advance sustainability across the feed-to-farm value chain.