2020 the Year of Corona was full of Challenges for the Agriculture Sector and we hope before the year ends the farmers meet their demands with the government.
According to DataLabs by Inc42, the agritech sector recorded a total funding of $244.59 Mn in 2019, an increase of over 350% in the amount of funding in the agritech sector from the previous year. Speaking to Inc42, agritech stakeholders said that while startups have expanded rapidly in the past couple of years, the growth of the sector has been held back by lack of government support, lack of structured data, fewer large investments, poor infrastructure, and policy lag.
Precision technology will definitely in the coming days help agriculture get strengthened in India. Various Start Ups have been formed and we are sure IoT could efficiently increase their incomes by guiding them on better practices. Here we are listing some Agritech Start ups which are helping solve farmer challenges in India and they are planning for a gigantic growth in 2021.The list below is no Ranking in particular, but what the author found interesting.
1. DeHaat
DeHaat is one of the fastest-growing start-ups in the Agri Tech sector and one of the very few companies providing end-to-end solutions and services to the farming community in India. Funding via Crunchbase and funding they received US$ 12M. They are building AI-enabled technologies to revolutionize supply chain and production efficiency in the farm sector. Currently, they are operating in eastern India - Bihar, UP, and Odisha - with 2,65,000+ farmers in our service network and our goal is to bring our services to 5 million farmers by 2024. Founded by the alumni from IIT Delhi, IIT Kharagpur, IIM Ahmedabad and other top institutes – DeHaat is now a fully funded start-up with a growth rate of 3-4x annually. The impact Dehaat created at grass root level over the last 8 years of their operations has been phenomenal, as recognized and felicitated by NASSCOM, Forbes, ET, Niti Aayog and Bill Gates Foundation.
2. CropIn
CropIn is an Earth Observation & AI-led AgTech organization that empowers the farming community to ‘Re-imagine Agriculture with Data’. It focuses on helping the world’s ag-ecosystem players to sustainably “maximize their per-acre value” by combining pixel-level data derived from satellite imagery, in combination with IoT and field intelligence. CropIn is positioned to engage in a multi-disciplinary approach towards AI, Earth Observation, Agriculture, Meteorology, and Computer Sciences, all collaborating together to bring meaningful insight to improve the ag-ecosystem and impact the livelihood of a farmer. CropIn provides SaaS solutions to 220+ agribusinesses and numerous governments and non-government organizations present in over 52 countries. CropIn thus enables businesses to leverage technology to effectively drive their initiatives around Digitization, Compliance, Predictability, Sustainability, and Traceability. CropIn has digitized over 5 million acres of farmland, enriched the lives of nearly 2.1 million farmers, and gathered data on 265 crops and 3,500 crop varieties. CropIn's product suite enables data-driven farming by connecting all the stakeholders in the Ag-ecosystem. The Funding they received is USD 8 million and Funding via Crunchbase.
3. AgroStar
AgroStar is leading Indian agriculture towards a more structured and technology-driven ecosystem. The funding they received is USD 27 Million and funding via Crunchbase. Their robust AgTech platform is available to the farmers on call or through the android app and provides a complete range of Agri solutions customized to the farmers’ needs. Farmers get a combination of real-time end-to-end scientific agronomy advice and Agri input products, delivered at the doorstep. With a dedicated mission of “Helping Farmers Win”, AgroStar’s solutions are helping farmers improve their farming practices, reduce cost, and earn better incomes. With our AgroStar Agri Doctor app available for farmers across the country to access the advisory services, the core operations related to Agri inputs are provided in the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh. The company is backed by leading venture capital firms like Aavishkaar Capital, Chiratae Ventures, Accel Partners, Bertelsmann India, and Rabo Frontier Ventures.
4. AgNext
AgNext is a fast-growing venture-funded company based in India working on the intersection of hardware, software, and analytics for quality estimation in agriculture and food. AgNext is based out of Chandigarh, Punjab. The Founder is Taranjeet Singh Bhamra, IIT Kgp & IIM Calcutta pass out. They have funding of USD 4.2Million and the Investors are Omnivore Capital and Kalaari Capital, an IDEA –Naarm. AgNext works with various agricultural stakeholders who would like to implement data-driven technologies to enhance food quality. Accelerated by ICAR-NAARM (AgTech Incubator by ICAR, Govt. of India) Incubated at IIT Kharagpur. The receiver of Best Product from TIECON, Best Innovation from CII & ISRAEL, and AgTech Emerging Startup - Associated Chamber of Commerce. They are providing an AI-based platform called Qualix for rapid commodity assessment solutions across procurement, trade, production, storage and consumption of food and Agri value chains. The Qualix AI engine uses spectrometry, computer vision and IoT Sensing solutions, delivered through an integrated hardware and software interface for accurate and instant quality analysis. AgNext presently focuses on verticals like beverages (tea, milk, coffee, cocoa), grains (rice, wheat, maize, barley), oilseeds (soybean, mustard), spices (turmeric, chilli, pepper, ginger, menthol) and animal feed.
5. Fasal
Fasal is an end-to-end farming app for horticulture farmers. Fasal is founded by Ananda Varma and Shailendra Tiwari and is based out of Bangalore, Karnataka. The funding FASAL received is USD 1.6 Million. Investors are Omnivore Partners and Wavemaker Partners. Fasal helps the farmer plan, monitor, and analyze all activities on your farm in a very simple and intuitive way. All activities like Pruning, sowing, spraying, fertilization, irrigation, harvesting, crop sale, and all other activities are managed with a click of a button. Fasal Sense, an IoT sensor device, once installed at your farm, continuously monitors your farm data. It then uses artificial intelligence and data science to make on-farm predictions about disease and pest and delivers actionable insights and recommendations on your mobile phone in vernacular language. Through the FASAL app, the Farmers receive real-time alerts about the crop, soil, and weather conditions to make adjustments to reach optimal growth conditions. The Management of Irrigation becomes precise and it helps in better crop yield and quality.
early prediction helps Save crops from deadly pests and diseases by early prediction. Nutrition Management is been taken care of by the app and that helps in saving input cost and enhance crop quality to get a better market price. The Finances are tracked, production and field activities are managed. A detailed inventory is made based on the details on-farm and weather conditions. Best of the Best practices are provided for all horticulture Crops. Powerful reporting and analytics available with a single click and Daily, weekly, and monthly finance monitoring reports will always help the farmer to stay on top.
6. Gramophone
Gramophone is one-stop solution for all kinds of inputs for the farmers. Gramophone was founded by Tauseef Khan, Nishant Vats, Harshit Gupta, and Ashish Singh. They have received a funding of USD 5 Million and works out of Indore, Madhya Pradesh. Their Investors are Info Edge, Raven Sastry, Asha Impact, and Better Capital. Gramophone believes that technology can remove information asymmetry in the agriculture system.
They strive to create a difference in farming by bringing timely information, technology, and the right kind of inputs to achieve better yields for farmers. Their endeavor is to bring the best products and knowledge to the farmers. Farmers can buy genuine crop protection, crop nutrition, seeds, implements, and agri hardware at their doorstep. Farmers can access a localized package of practice, crop advisory, weather information coupled with the best products to grow. This will improve productivity and help farmers sustainably increase the income from agriculture.
