India is an agrarian country with 118.7 million farmers where more than half of its population depends upon agriculture as their primary source of income. Moreover, with the production of agriculture activity of $375.61 billion, India is the 2nd largest producer of agriculture product with 7.39 per cent of total global agricultural output after China.
However, the nationwide lockdown and COVID-19 crisis badly hit the farm sector. Halted logistics and transportation services have doubled the farmer’s hardship and plight impacting the total supply chain. However, the government has eased out the restriction on agriculture allied services during 2.0 lockdown and various Agritech startups have stepped out to help the farmers amid the crisis period helping them to sell their produce.
Agritech startups including Agri Bazaar,De Haat, Big Basket, Mera Kisan, Ninjacart,are providing huge reliefs to the farmers while helping them to connect with buyers, including through retailers, ecommerce, and by even directly selling the produce to consumers. However, there is a huge opportunity left for agripenuers in the coming years and these agritech starts are the bright example of that.
Let’s know about These Indian Agri Startups which begged funding during the lockdown:
Clover:
Clover Bengaluru-based greenhouse agritech startup Clover on Tuesday announced that it had raised Rs 7 crore in venture debt from Alteria Capital. Clover partners with farmers across India and markets premium quality, branded, greenhouse-grown fresh produce through B2B and B2C channels.
DeHaat
Gurugram and Patna-based agritech platform DeHaat has raised Series A funding of $12 million led by Sequoia Capital. The round saw participation from FMO, the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank, and existing investors Omnivore and AgFunder.
Intello Labs
Gurugram-based Intello Labs raised $5.9 million in Series A funding led by Saama Capital in May 2020.
The agritech startup digitises quality across fresh produce supply chains, reducing food waste by detecting variance from specifications and matching output to needs.
Bijak B2B
Bijak B2B trade platform serving the agricultural sector, Bijak, in April, raised $11.8 million in its Series A round from its existing investors, including Omnivore Partners, and Tempo Ventures, Bi Fund, among others.
Founded in May 2019 by Nukul Upadhye, Mahesh Jakhotia, Jitender Bedwal, Daya Rai, and Nikhil Tripathi, Bijak aims to bridge the information asymmetry and lack of accountability across trade in agricultural activities. It enables traders, wholesalers, and food processors to keep a ledger of their transactions, access transparent pricing, optimise logistics, and improve their working capital cycles. The company's proprietary app is available in several local languages, and currently caters to the country's agricultural states such as Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Bihar, and Uttarakhand.
