Agriculture, along with allied sectors is the primary source of income for a majority of Indian’s living in rural areas. As the population of the country is expected to grow to 1.4 billion by 2020, and the average size of land holdings decreasing over the years, creating pressure on the already stressed agricultural industry.
There is a huge opportunity in the agriculture and allied sector that is expected to touch ₹17.67 trillion ($274 billion) in FY18. As the majority of Indian farmers are dependent on traditional and inefficient farming techniques, agritech startups are leveraging technology to empower the farmers to increase their earnings.
Here is a list of agritech startups helping the Indian agricultural industry, through technology, to overcome multiple hurdles:
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Agritech startups providing a technology-led marketplace for farmers
NinjaCart
NinjaCart provides an agri-marketing platform that lets the farmers sell their fresh produce directly to retailers, restaurants. It helps provide better prices for the farmers and a constant supply of fresh fruits and vegetables for the retailers and restaurants.
This agritech startup was founded by Thirukumaran Nagarajan, Ashutosh Vikram, Kartheeswaran K K, Sachin Jose, and Sharath Loganathan in July 2015, with its headquarter in Bengaluru.
Till date, Ninjacart has raised $164.2 million from Tiger Global Management, Accel, Qualcomm Ventures and Steadview Capital.
Crofarm
This agritech startup provides a supply chain solution, by bringing farmers and businesses on a common platform, making it easier for businesses to procure and fetching higher prices for the farmers. Gurugram-based Crofarm was founded by Varun Khurana and Prashant Jain in 2016.
Overall, the startup has raised a total of $2.8 million from a clutch of marquee investors like Rajan Anandan, Managing Director of Sequoia Capital, LetsVenture, Pravega Ventures, among others.
Waycool
Waycool provides supply chain solutions from procuring food products from farmers, moving the products in GPS-enabled trucks, to delivering the product to clients. This Chennai-based startup was founded by Karthik Jayaraman and Sanjay Dasari in 2015. So far, Waycool has raised a total of $60.8 million from investors like Aspada, Lightbox, FMO and InnoVen Capital.
AgroWave
Gurugram-based AgroWave was founded by IIT Delhi alumnus Anu Meena in 2017. This startup aims to transform farmers lives by optimising the supply chain solution by incorporating technology. It provides complete logistics support to farmers by connecting them with various businesses and help deliver their products to those customers on time.
FarmLink
FarmLink provides end-to-end supply chain for fruits and vegetable by leveraging technology to reduce food wastage. It was founded by Akshaya Kamath and Sreeram Chellappa in 2014, with its headquarter in Mumbai.
It had last raised $3 million in seed funding from Pioneering Ventures and Syngenta in November 2017.
KrishiHub
Bengaluru-based agritech startup KrishiHub was founded by Bhoopendra Kumar and Jyotiska Khasnabish in 2016. It provides an AI-powered, data-driven supply chain management platform to reduce wastage and enable farmers to fetch better prices, along with ensuring a daily doorstep delivery of fresh vegetables to its clients.
The startup raised an undisclosed amount of funds IIT Kanpur INVENT accelerator and Villgro Innovation Fund in November 2017.
Farm Taaza
The startup provides fresh produce supply chain solutions by ensuring the quality of fruits and vegetables as per its clients through a carefully tailored packaging process, along with providing competitive prices for farmers. Farm Taaza was founded by Kumar Ramachandran, along with other Silicon Valley veterans in 2015, with its headquarter in Bengaluru.
This agritech startup last raised $8 million in series A round led by Epsilon Venture Partners, along with IL&FS Investment Managers’ Tara India Fund IV in October 2017.
Our Food
Our Food provides a platform for farmers to add value to their produce by enabling bulk buyers to procure quality vegetables, fruits, grains, among other products. It reduces transportation and labour costs by pre-processing at the farm level and ensures reliable supply through its network of warehouses, collection centres, and distribution centres. It was founded by Bala Reddy, Raghu Prasad Mulukoju, and Sashikanth Menchu with its headquarter in Hyderabad.
The startup recently raised ₹1.4 crores ($200,000) in a bridge funding round led by US-based 3Lines Ventures.
Gramco Infratech Pvt Ltd
This agritech startup provides a comprehensive solution for farmers from sowing to warehousing through its platform and network of infrastructure. It aims to help farmers add value and realize better prices for their produce. Indore-based Gramco Infratech was founded by Raman Saluja in 2009.
Gramco Infratech had last raised $2.3 million from Samridhi Fund in August 2013.
DeHaat
Founded by Shashank Kumar and Amrendra Singh in 2012, DeHaat helps the farmers at every stage of their agricultural journey by helping them procure quality agricultural inputs like seeds and fertilizers at affordable prices, providing personalized assistance, soil testing, weather reports, micro-finance, insurance and helping them connect with institutional buyers to sell their produce all through their app or voice calls in their local language.
The company has helped more than 2,00,000 farmers through its network across Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand. They are looking to serve more than 5 million farmers by 2024. To help them achieve their goals of reaching 5 million farmers, the company has raised $19.3 million from Sequoia Capital, Omnivore, FMO and AgFunder.
Agritech startups using technology to boost productivity for farmers
AgroStar
Pune-based AgroStar offers a one-stop solution for farmers to boost their productivity and incomes by providing agricultural products such as high-quality seeds, fertilizers, crops, among many other products, coupled with farming advice. It was founded by Shardul Sheth and Sitanshu Sheth in 2013.
AgroStar has raised $42 million from investors like Bertelsmann India Investments, InnoVen Capital, Chiratae Ventures, and Accel to help Indian farmers.
RML AgTech
Mumbai-based RML AgTech provides smart farming solutions using data analysis to help the farmers from growing to selling their products. It was founded by Amit Mehra in 2007.
The startup had last raised a total of $7.1 million from IvyCap Ventures.
KisanHub
The startup provides an intelligent crop management platform that helps the farmers in irrigation management, yield prediction, advice on fertilizers, along with other crop-specific advice to increase production in a simple yet sophisticated way. Cambridge and Pune-based KisanHub was founded by Sachin Shende and Giles Barker in 2012.
KisanHub has raised a total of $7.7 million from Sistema Venture Capital, Notion, IQ Capital Partners, and Calibrate Management.
Intello Labs
Bengaluru-based Intello Labs uses deep learning and image processing to detect crop diseases or pest infestation in the crops. Its smart platform also gives recommendations to the farmers on how to cure and prevent the disease or infestation. It was founded by Devendra Chandani and Milan Sharma in 2016.
Intello Labs has raised a total of $7.9 million from Saama Capital, Omnivore, Nexus Venture Parters, and SVG Ventures.
CropIn
Bengaluru-based CropIn provides an intelligent, intuitive and self-evolving system that helps farmers in decision making to improve productivity and grow their business. The system is enabled with live reporting, analysis, interpretation, and insight from the farm in real-time to facilitate quick decision making for farmers. The startup was founded by Krishna Kumar in 2010.
This agritech startup last raised $13.5 million from investors like Chiratae Ventures, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, BEENEXT, and Ankur Capital.
Aibono
Chennai-based Aibono uses real-time data science and artificial intelligence to increase farm yields for farmers by monitoring farm growth, crop disease, weather, soil, among other parameters. The startup was founded by Vivek Rajkumar in 2014.
The startup has raised $3.5 million from the likes of Menterra Venture Advisors, Artha India Ventures, 3one4 Capital and Rebright Partners.
EM3 Agri Services
EM3 Agri Services provides end-to-end on-demand farming solutions to farmers through its SAMADHAN platform. The startup helps in increasing agricultural productivity by providing farming machines and other tools, along with technology services on a pay-for-use basis. It was founded by Adwitya Mal, along with his father Rohtash Mal in 2013, with its headquarter in Noida.
The startup raised $10 million in series B round led by Global Innovation Fund, along with participation from Soros Economic Development Fund, and Aspada in August 2017.
Fasal
It provides an intelligent platform to monitor and analyse various aspects of the farm in order to provide smart solutions for irrigation management, resource optimization, increasing yield and quality of the yield. The farmer can keep track of all the aspects of his farm using the Fasal‘s cloud platform from anywhere and on any device. Fasal was founded by Ananda Verma and Shailendra Tiwari in January 2018, with its headquarter in Bengaluru.
Fasal has raised $1.8 million from Omnivore, Wavemaker Partners, Artesian VC, Mount Parker Ventures, among others.
Gold Farm
This agritech startup provides a platform for farmers to book farming equipment in order to boost productivity and efficiency. Gold Farm was founded by Abhilash Thirupathy in 2012. The startup aims to provide a comprehensive platform for all farming products and services.
Gold Farm last raised $2 million in seed funding from Mahindra Rise and Infuse Ventures in October 2017.
Gramophone
The startup provides a one-stop solution for all kinds of inputs for farmers. It provides various products such as crop protection, crop nutrition, seed, along with other agriculture hardware at their doorsteps. Along with products, it also provides advice on best farming practices to help increase their productivity and incomes in a sustainable manner. Indore-based Gramophone was founded by Ashish Singh, Harshit Gupta, Nishant Mahatre, and Tauseef Khan in 2016.
The startup last raised ₹24.78 crore in its series A round led by Info Edge in August 2019.
As the government aims to double the incomes of the farmers in the country from around ₹96,700 ($1500) in 2015-16 to around ₹2,19,000 ($3,400) by 2022-23, there is a huge potential for the agritech startups to leverage the opportunity in order to help the farmers and capture this unorganised sector.
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