Aquapulse, a Bhubaneswar-headquartered aquaculture technology and seafood export startup, has raised Rs 45 crore in a funding round led by NABVENTURES, the venture capital arm of Nabard, through its AgriSURE Fund, with participation from IAN Alpha Fund.
The fresh capital will help strengthen farm-level technology and disease management systems and expand farmer procurement networks across eastern India. It will also scale up processing and export operations and build working capital infrastructure to support the company’s rapidly growing global business.
Established in 2023 by Abhishek Dwivedy and Abhilash Dwivedy, Aquapulse is a technology-enabled, farmer-centric platform that seeks to transform India’s fragmented shrimp aquaculture sector by directly connecting smallholder farmers with organised domestic and international markets.
Operating through an “aquapreneur-led” hub-and-spoke model, the agritech startup currently works with shrimp farmers across Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal, helping them improve productivity, traceability and market access.
The funding comes at a time when India’s seafood exports are witnessing record growth. India exported nearly 1.97 million metric tonnes of seafood worth over Rs 73,890 crore (about $8.46 billion) during FY26, with frozen shrimp continuing to dominate export earnings.
Despite the sector’s impressive contribution to the country’s export basket, a substantial share of shrimp production still comes from small and fragmented farms that often lack access to modern technology, stable pricing mechanisms, organised market linkages and traceability systems increasingly demanded by global buyers.
“Aquapulse aims to bridge this gap through an integrated pond-to-port supply chain model. The capital helps us deepen the aquapreneur cluster model, strengthen pre-harvest technology at the pond and scale processing and exports. We are not trying to replace the existing value chain overnight. We are trying to organise it – pond by pond, cluster by cluster, to ensure that quality, traceability and farmer income all move in the same direction,” said Abhishek, Co-founder, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer.
The firm provides farmers with support in water quality monitoring, feed management, disease early-warning systems and harvesting coordination. It also integrates pre-harvest technology support, lagoon-based harvesting, processing partnerships and export logistics into a single traceable supply chain platform.
Abhilash, Co-founder and Chief Growth Officer, emphasised the agritech startup’s objective of making small farmers visible participants in the global seafood economy. “The model seeks to address two critical challenges simultaneously by enhancing farmer incomes and ensuring quality consistency for international buyers. Our job is to make the smallholder shrimp farmer a named, recognised participant in the global seafood chain, not just an anonymous input,” he said.
Investors appreciated Aquapulse’s ability to address structural inefficiencies in India’s aquaculture sector while building a scalable business model. Sarika Saxena, Managing Partner at IAN Alpha Fund, said the company stood out because of its deep understanding of the aquaculture ecosystem and strong operational execution.
“We invest in scalable, execution-driven companies that bridge critical market gaps. Aquapulse stood out immediately due to their deep understanding of the aquaculture ecosystem and a ground-level operational model that drives genuine value for both vendors and customers,” she said.
Aquapulse operates under Phoenix Marine Exports and Solution Pvt Ltd (PMES) and has emerged as one of the few Odisha-based startups building a global seafood export business around technology-enabled traceability and farmer aggregation.
Currently, the firm exports shrimp primarily to China, Vietnam and Japan while also catering to domestic institutional buyers and modern retail channels. Having started operations in Odisha, Aquapulse has rapidly expanded its footprint into neighbouring aquaculture hubs in Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal, demonstrating the scalability of its aggregation model.
The company has raised a total of Rs 70 crore in the last two months. In April, it raised Rs 25 crore for expansion and setting up a state-of-the-art in-house processing facility, besides strengthening its technology stack. It is also investing in AI-led pre- and post-harvest systems and its tech-led transparent pricing model.