Mahindra Group has increased its stake in Carnot Technologies, an agricultural technology startup, to roughly 69 percent. The group has also reaffirmed its commitment to creating India's largest ecosystem of digital products and solutions through Krish-e, the group's farming as a service vertical. As part of the round, an appealing ESOP pool for future employees was created.
Talking about the investment Sr. Vice President of Farm Equipment Strategy and Head Krish-e Ramesh Ramachandran said “This investment signals our strategic commitment to Carnot. They have been at the forefront of building for Bharat and innovating specifically for farmers.”
“Since our last investment in late 2020, they have been our partner in leading the digital product and technology vision for Krish-e and in just under 18 months we have built a digital platform with a big Bharat footprint – including 500,000 app users, 4 million rental hours and 4 million acres of farmland. We now deepen the ties and continue building on our strengths”.
The Krish-e app is part of Mahindra’s digital foray into developing a marketplace that provides a range of services centered around mechanization and advisory. It is one of the fastest-growing apps in the agriculture technology space having amassed over 3 million downloads. The app is also integrated with on-ground activities undertaken in Krish-e’s 100 centers across 16 states.
Carnot Technologies is a startup founded by IIT Bombay alumni which developed the leading agriculture IoT platform Simha (rebranded to Krish-e Rental) which now has over 25,000 tractors, harvesters and sprayers working on over 3 million acres of land each season.
The platform is protected by 5 patents and was awarded the Qualcomm Design in India award for $100K by then Minister of Cabinet for Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad.
“The team has also developed the Krish-e app which through its unique and intuitive farmer-centric design is helping farmers earn up to Rs 15,000 more per acre.” says Pushkar Limaye, Co-founder & CTO at Carnot.
“In the course of our partnership with M&M, we realized that someone had to understand our farmers and make products that are innovative, highly cost-conscious and make sense for our farmers. And if it's not the next generation of engineers and entrepreneurs then who will build them? With this round of investment, we also want to move into top gear, in pursuit of building a great team and a data-driven culture within every function.”
The team aims to invest more in their technology and people to scale rapidly in the next year. Carnot CEO and Co-founder Rohan Vadgaonkar added “With our technology and product mindset and Mahindra’s strong brand and presence in rural India, we’re perfectly poised to build India’s largest agri marketplace.”
