(February 9, 2024) India, with a staggering 120 million farmers, relies predominantly on agriculture as its main source of income. Despite the limited technology adoption in the country’s agricultural sector, a select few entities are actively incorporating digitisation, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. Their aim is not only to enhance the agricultural industry but also to enhance the livelihoods of farmers. These agricultural technology startups are addressing technological, financial, and logistical deficiencies in the supply chain, guaranteeing consumers access to high-quality products at reasonable prices while ensuring fair compensation for farmers.
According to a recent report from NASSCOM, there are more than 450 agricultural startups in the country, experiencing an annual growth rate of 25 percent. In 2021, EY forecasted that the Indian agrotech market could potentially reach $24 billion by 2025. Global Indian highlights specific agrotech companies that are emerging as pivotal players in transforming the agricultural sector.
Waycool
Founder: Sanjay Dasari
One of India’s fastest-growing agricultural startup and food distribution companies, Waycool Foods & Products Pvt. Ltd, was established with a simple motive to ensure farm products reach the customer’s table without any compromise on quality. While there were other players in the field at the time, Sanjay Dasari, the founder of Waycool, noticed that the perishable goods supply chain in the country was disorganised, and since aggregators were not storing the produces properly, they would pay the farmers way less than they deserved.
Sanjay Dasari, founder, WayCool
Over the last eight years, Waycool has positively impacted the lives of over 500,000 farmers, earning an estimated annual revenue of $2 million. In 2021, the company managed to raise $64.9 million in funding and also started several high-quality private-label products under the label SunnyBee.
- Follow WayCool on LinkedIn
Ninjacart
Founders: Ashutosh Vikram, Kartheeswaran K K, Sharath Loganathan, Thiru Nagarajan, Thirukumaran Nagarajan, Vasu Devan
When six Bengaluru-based IT professionals decided to start a company in 2015, there was hardly any other organisation working in the agro tech setup. It took months of discussion, brainstorming, and field research for Ashutosh Vikram, Kartheeswaran KK, Sharath Loganathan, Thiru Nagarajan, Thirukumaran Nagarajan, and Vasu Devan before they decided to start Ninajcart – a company aimed to ease the lives of several agri players, including farmers, wholesalers, and aggregators.
However, a year into the market, the founders realised that reaching only supply chain players wasn’t going to help them grow. So, they started their B2C model, which revolutionised the whole agro tech game in India. The founders eliminated the middleman, not just ensuring that the product reached the customers in time, but also ensuring that the farmers involved with Ninjacart were not subject to unfair practices. Today, Ninjacart employs nearly 2,000 farmers to sell more than 80 varieties of vegetables and fruits every day to around 1000 customers in Bengaluru. Valued at $194.2 million, Ninjacart is equipped to move over 1500 tons of perishable goods from farms to businesses, every day, in under 12 hours.
- Follow Ninjacart on LinkedIn
Agrowave
Founder: Anu Meena
Farming has been a male-dominated field. So when Anu Meena, a young IIT graduate decided to start an agro tech company, she did face a bit of resilience from her loved ones. However, her passion for building a sustainable supply chain for fruits and vegetables helped her overcome all difficulties and established Agrowave in 2017. With a farm-to-market business model, Agrowave has helped about 8,000 farmers from parts of Rajasthan, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra sell their produce from their farm gates through mobile pickup stations.
Anu Meena, founder, Agrowave
The company created several pickup locations for the farmers so that they do not have to travel to the mandi to sell their produce. The delivery trucks pick up the produce from farmer gates and pick-up stations and allow hassle-free payments to the farmers. Valued at $2.6 million, the agro tech startup has managed to cut the middleman from the entire supply chain process.
- Follow Agrowave on LinkedIn
MeraKisan
Founder: Prashant Patil
Backed by Mahindra, Pune-based MeraKisaan has been able to grow exponentially in a very short period. One of the first agro tech companies in the country, MeraKisan focusses on the needs and demands of customers who want quality farm produce and also works to create visibility for those farmers who are producing quality agricultural products.
Prashant Patil with the company’s brand ambassador, cricketer Ajinkya Rahane
Addressing the market linkage problems for farmers, the founder of the startup, Prashant Patil, started by helping farmers in his area switch to premium organic produce, for which there was heavy demand. While the organic crop was getting ready, Patil and his team worked on developing an infrastructure to procure and store the produce and solve the supply inefficiencies at a macro level. They then marketed their produce in online marketplaces, including Ninjacart, Jumbotail, CropIn, FreshWorld, Aker Foods, and AgroStar, to connect organic farmers, producers, suppliers as well as customers. Currently, MeraKisan is valued at around $1 million.
- Follow MeraKisan on LinkedIn
Bijak
Founders: Nikhil Tripathi, Mahesh Jakhotia, Nakul Upadhye, Jitender Bedwal, Daya Rai
Founded in 2019, Bijak gives a premium business-to-business platform for agricultural commodity trading that helps buyers and sellers better prices, increase working capital, and optimise logistics. The idea is to focus on gaps in the supply chain, including data analysis, finances, technology, and unorganised workers, to help the farmers get a better value for their crop, without it being a burden for the traders.
Nikhil Tripathi, Mahesh Jakhotia, Nakul Upadhye, Jitender Bedwal, and Daya Rai
The platform provides loans to traders and also a small working capital for the farmers. To ensure that there are no wastages or partial truckloads, the company also provides aggregated logistics services through its mobile application. Valued at $33.9 million, the company is working in over 27 cities across India, covering more than 100 products on its platform.
- Follow Bijak on LinkedIn
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