Agritech firms received $532 million investment till April this year: EY

Agritech companies have received an investment of USD 532 million till April this year for growth and tap the market that has the potential to reach USD 24 billion by 2025, according to an EY report.

"India's burgeoning start-up ecosystem has been actively playing its part in disrupting the agriculture sector. Agritech start-ups are operating in an attractive market with an estimated potential of USD 24 billion by 2025," EY said in its report 'Agritech - towards transforming Indian agriculture'.

The agritech is helping in solving many challenges across the spectrum of the traditional agriculture value chain.

The potential of agritech market can be segmented into supply chain tech and output market linkages (USD 12 billion), financial services (USD 4.1 billion), precision agriculture and farm management (USD 3.4 billion), quality management and traceability (USD 3 billion), and market linkages -farm inputs (USD 1.7 billion), the report said.

However, despite witnessing strong investment activity in the last few years, market penetration in the sector is still very low at around one per cent, it added.

"Agritech players operating in the addressable segments in India have received a cumulative investment funding of USD 532 million as of April 2020," said Ankur Pahwa, Partner and National Leader E-Commerce and Consumer Internet, EY India.

The global investors can harness their learnings from their success stories in the agritech segments to help them realise their full potential in India, he added.

Pahwa said there would be consolidation in the industry as larger players begin to acquire regional players to achieve scale in market linkages as also extend into other service domains.