By Your AgriStory 
Tamil Nadu Based Croft Beverages Raises $125K in Pre-Seed Funding. In a pre-seed funding round, Croft Beverages, a sustainable tea company with a farmer focus, raised $125,000. Leading the round were well-known angel investors from the biotech, IT, sustainability, and tea industries.
According to a news statement from Croft, the new funding will be utilized for its farmer-owned FPC concept, beginning with its first mini-factory in Billicombai, close to Kotagiri.
Founded by Harish Kannan, Croft Beverages aims to create a sustainable model to improve the livelihoods of small tea growers.
Producing tea that is ethically sourced, traceable to its origins, transparent in trade, and transformative for farmers is the platform’s goal. It intends to empower over 3,000 small farmers in the Nilgiris region and build a network of more than 100 farmer-owned small-scale industries by 2030.
The Tamil Nadu-based company says that it has established important alliances with some of the top brands in the nation under its “direct from origin” model thanks to strategic initiatives including 100% “farm-to-cup” traceability and best-in-class agronomy. Croft is currently working on establishing three more farmer-owned factories in 2025 after the first batch of tea produced by the farmers’ plant was entirely sold out.
Croft claims that each mini-factory directly turns 25 small farmers into entrepreneurs, increasing their income by 3x.