E11: Mark Kahn (Managing Partner, Omnivore)

Mark Kahn is the Managing Partner at Omnivore, a venture capital firm which funds entrepreneurs building the future of agriculture and food systems. Mark co-founded Omnivore in 2010 with Jinesh Shah, ex-CFO at Nexus Venture Partners. Previously, Mark was the Executive Vice President (Strategy & Business Development) at Godrej Agrovet, and also had stints at Syngenta and PFM. He earned a BA (Honors) from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he graduated as a Baker Scholar.

You can follow Mark Kahn (@agri_technology) and host Akash Bhat (@bhatvakash) on Twitter.

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Glossary of terms:

1. Upstream investments – Upstream investments refer to infusion of capital into businesses that utilize material inputs needed for production e.g. seed, fertilizers, machinery etc.

2. Downstream investments – Downstream investments refers to the infusion of capital into businesses where products get produced and distributed. e.g. e-commerce, grocery stores, logistics etc.

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In this episode, we will cover:

1. Mark’s venture into agri-business

2. The broad definition of agri-tech and what it encompasses

3. Evolution of agri-tech as sector

4. Omnivore’s thesis for India

5. Upstream vs downstream investments in agri-tech

6. Sectors and geographies within agri-tech in India

7. Metrics Omnivore pays close attention to while evaluating for investment

8. Concepts of sustainability and how it correlates to success of the Indian agri-industry

9. Challenges within agri-tech and for agri-tech startups

10. The global opportunity for Indian agri-tech startups