New crop of agri-tech startups go beyond farm-to-fork to serve niche areas

Their initiatives span areas as diverse as sericulture and fisheries using niche solutions like IoT-based farm management and using AI to ensure freshness of produce

With a contribution of 18 per cent to the GDP, India’s agriculture sector deserved far more technology innovation than it has received so far. With total funding in modern agri-tech ventures at about $600 million to date, the scale has only begun to tilt.

The first wave of startups, mainly the likes of Jumbotail, Ninjakart and Agrostar, technologised supply chains and brought the conveniences of app-based e-commerce to foods. So did the effort by retail chains like Big Bazaar and Reliance Fresh. Now a fresh breed of enterprises that target niche segments are coming up.

Dozens of new ventures are creating efficiencies through niche solutions like IoT-based farm management, quality management of soil and produce, financial services to un-banked farmers, besides making strides in farm-to-fork, an industry term for end-to-end supply chain for farm produce. New startups are specifically targeting certain niches, for instance, silk production or fisheries.

Mayank Tiwari studied textiles at NIFT, Mumbai and worked for several years in textiles sourcing for major brands. Two years back, he decided to start out on his own and put his learning to aid the community of silk manufacturers. “India is the second biggest producer of silk and the number one market in the world, which makes it a net importer. The silk industry has argely relied on traditional ways and received very little in terms of technology advancement,” said Tiwari.

ReshaMandi, Tiwari’s year-old venture, is fixing the various legacy issues in silk’s multi-level production process. It could be using IoT devices to track temperature and moisture in sheds of silkworms and mulberry leaves, or using AI to grade cocoons and final yarn threads, or providing a market to buy inputs and sell produce. All of it is done over a cloud-based platform and app.

“It’s a 21-day cycle, only after which the silk makers get to see the quality of the output. If any of the steps goes wrong, the entire batch is wasted,” said Tiwari. He added that ReshaMandi’s target market has 450,000 weavers and 500,000 retailers of silk.

Similar is the story of Utham Gowda, founder of Capital Fresh, who used his experience working at a large sea food supplier in Vishakhapatnam to launch an online marketplace in the sea good category. “We (Capital Fresh) are digitally transforming the highly inefficient fresh fish and seafood supply chain in India by aggregating the fragmented retail demand across the country and linking them to the small fishermen and farmers throughout the Indian coast,” Gowda said.

Just like other fresh food categories, fish and seafood have special needs when it comes to storage, packaging and delivery. Capital Fresh works on the B2B side and has already taken in over 500 retailers in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mangaluru, Mumbai, Pune and Visakhapatnam. The venture recently raised $2.3 million from Matrix Partners India and Ankur Capital.

Early success of some of the big players (for instance Ninjakart which recently raised $10 million at $500 million valuation market) has given the confidence to fresh breed of entrepreneurs to go deeper. According to Ankur Pahwa, partner, EY, agritech start-ups are operating in an attractive market with an estimated potential of $24 billion by 2025.

Given the potential--there are more than 450 agri-tech startups currently, which rank the country at 9th place globally--India has lately seen rise in VCs specially targeting the agri-tech sector. Omnivore, Accel and Ankur Capital are some of them to name a few. The government has also played a catalysing role. Apart from e-NAM, a national online marketplace for farmers, the government has also launched Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana with a focus on increasing the irrigation coverage in the country. There is also a plan, with a budgeted outlay of Rs 2,000 crore for the computerisation of the Primary Agricultural Credit Society (PACS) with the prime aim of benefitting cooperatives through digital technology.