Mubashir Aalam Wani
Srinagar, Feb 6: Qul Fruitwall (Qul), the Kashmir-based horticultural start-up, which became the union territory’s first private sector enterprise to receive global institutional capital, is confident of major transformation in the horticulture sector with such investments.
Qul Fruitwall Farm Installations has received funding of ₹60 crore for operations and research to modernise the sector, paving the way for more foreign institutional investment in the region.
Eighty percent of the funding is coming from Incofin Investment Management and a portion from Fiedlin Ventures.
Irtik Shamim, Chief Financial officer of the start-up said that Rs 60 crore funding will open the door for more foreign investments into Kashmir’s horticulture industry.
“We are dealing with pre and post-harvest management and our firm has helped the growers to enhance their income. We led the foundation of the CA store and introduced the concept of high-density plantation. With these achievements, we went to investors and secured a funding of Rs 60 crore,” he said.
With this funding, the company’s valuation has raised close to Rs 400 crores. “This is the kind of First Global investment in the UT with one of Europe’s Large impact Fund as the lead investor. This will open a whole new opportunity for the budding entrepreneurs who are doing meaningful work but are not able to take their business forward beyond a certain point,” Irtik said
He said the start-up is working on various models to transform the horticulture sector of the valley.
“We are witnessing that every year diseases like scab infest our orchards and affect the quality of our apples. We are currently working on a project, through which we will be able to predict diseases in apple orchards,” Irtik said.
Irtik also said that they have been actively working to enhances the production through introduction of modern and scientific farming in the valley.
“In Kashmir, we produce only 12-13 tonnes of apples per hectare. While as in Europe it is around 70-90 tonnes apple per hectare. We are raising awareness among the farmers and convincing them to follow the European model of farming to enhance production,” he said.
“Our soil is way more fertile than that of Europe and we have a scope of getting an enhanced production and quality apple. By adopting modern and scientific farming, the income of our farmers can grow by more than five times,” Irtik added.
