Arboreal Bioinnovations raises ₹230 cr in Series A funding for specialty food ingredient expansion

Arboreal Bioinnovations Private Limited announced the close of its ₹230 crore Series A funding round today. The transaction was co-led by EAAA Alternatives, the alternatives arm of Edelweiss, and Omnivore, with participation from existing investor Rainmatter by Zerodha. The fundraise represents one of the largest Series A transactions in India’s specialty food ingredients sector.  

Arboreal will use the capital to expand manufacturing capacity, strengthen research and development, and commercialise its functional ingredients. Swati Pandey, Co-Founder and CEO, said, “This fundraise is a strong validation of the direction we are taking as a company. It gives us the fuel to accelerate our mission of building clean, science-led solutions that address some of the world's most pressing nutritional and food challenges, with innovation originating in India and reaching consumers globally.”  

Arboreal operates a contextual innovation model designed to meet the nutritional, functional and commercial requirements of Indian consumer brands. Its technology platform integrates ingredient engineering, process R&D, formulation science, and precision manufacturing.  

The company manufactures ingredients across next-generation proteins, cocoa-based ingredients, natural zero-calorie sweeteners, and functional fibres with additional platforms under development. Arboreal has doubled its growth year-on-year, supporting over 300 product launches across more than 1,100 consumer brands and nutraceutical manufacturers over the past 18 months.  

Highlighting this trajectory, Co-Founder and COO Manish Chauhan added, “This fundraise marks an important milestone in Arboreal’s journey from building IP led ingredient technologies to enabling big shifts across categories through ingredient first innovation. The confidence shown by EAAA, Omnivore and Rainmatter validates both the strength of our platform and the opportunity ahead of us. It gives us the ability to invest more deeply in science, manufacturing, talent and long-term innovation, while building a platform capable of creating differentiated ingredients for some of the world’s most important food and nutraceutical brands. We are excited to build Arboreal into a globally respected ingredient technology company from India.”  

The capital raise represents the first investment from EAAA Alternatives' Discovery Fund II. Ashish Agarwal, Managing Director of Private Equity at EAAA Alternatives, explained, “ The investment in Arboreal reflects the core philosophy of our Fund’sstrategy - backing businesses with the potential to emerge as category leaders. As the first investment from our Discovery Fund II, we are particularly excited at the long term growth prospects of Arboreal’s next-generation yeast protein products We look forward to working with Swati and Manish as they continue to build category leadership in R&D-led nutraceutical ingredients.”

Addressing changing consumer demand and market gaps, Jinesh Shah, Managing Partner at Omnivore, said, “The shift toward clean-label and functional foods requires engineered ingredients that deliver clear health benefits without sacrificing taste or margins. Arboreal fills a critical market gap with locally developed formulations. From sweetener alternatives to novel yeast proteins and collagens, Arboreal’s R&D stack positions them to power the next wave of health and wellness brands.”

Expressing support for domestic R&D initiatives, Dinesh Pai, Head of Investments at Rainmatter, added, “We all lament that India does not allocate capital for enough R&D. Aside from all the things everyone else shared in their reasoning for the investment, we truly wanted to back Swati and Manish in building a world class R&D team working on food ingredients from India. We believe that they are the right team, with exceptional grit to chase down this problem. Rainmatter exists to back these audacious bets, and this is one of them.”