India is an agriculturally-driven country with 70 per cent of its rural households still dependent primarily on agriculture for their livelihood. With technology advancing rapidly and making its way into different sectors, agricultural space has welcomed it next.
Farmers, who are the backbone of the agricultural sector, will not have to worry about climate uncertainties, vague soil condition knowledge, and water and pest issues due to the technological innovations that Indian agritech companies are bringing into the picture. They can make informed decisions backed by sophisticated tools that can give them better returns, uplift their lifestyles and ultimately make India’s agricultural productivity numbers grow.
Here are a few companies using AI and analytics to innovate the agritech space in India:
Ninjacart
Founders: Ashutosh Vikram, Sharath Loganathan, Vasu Devan, Kartheeswaran KK, Thirukumaran Nagarajan
Started in: 2015
Ninjacart is a business-to-business fresh produce supply chain that connects farmers and manufacturers to retailers directly. It aims to solve supply chain problems in Indian agriculture with the use of technology and data science. It focuses on problems like food wastage, information barriers, distribution inefficiency, cash handling, high input cost and low-quality food. It uses market intelligence tools, machine learning methods to predict market prices, and deep learning algorithms for forecasting demand (reducing food wastage). Its RFID powered supply chain management helps track produce on a store shelf to a farmer and its corresponding farming data.
Cropin
Founder: Krishna Kumar
Started in: 2010
It provides SaaS-based services to agribusinesses through an intelligent, self-evolving system that gives farming solutions. The company uses tech like big data analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to create an interconnected network of stakeholders at different stages of the agricultural space. In addition, it provides decision-making tools, live reporting, analysis, and interpretation mechanisms. The company has raised a total of $32.6 million in funding over 10 rounds; the last funding was in June 2021 of $20 million in a Series C round.
Agribolo
Founder: Arvind Godara
Started in: 2016
Agribolo provides farmers with the latest mandi/weather updates, best farm practices, expert advice related to soil health and nutrition, crop prices, a variety of seeds and optimum usage of fertilizers. It also provides Agri Mart and Agro Services, which are marketplaces to buy/rent/sell agri-based products and services along with e-mandi services.
Fasal
Founders: Ananda Verma and Shailendra Tiwari
Started in: 2018
Fasal is an AI-powered platform for the agriculture ecosystem that records different growing conditions on the farm. It uses data science and AI algorithms to make on-farm predictions before delivering the insights anywhere on any device. It helps in weather forecast at field level, irrigation management, pest and disease management, fertilizer, fungicide and pesticide application management and also gives real-time alerts about the crop, soil, and weather conditions. Fasal has raised a total of $1.9 million in funding over 4 rounds. It is backed by Flipkart Leap and Omnivore.
Aibono
Founders: Vivek Rajkumar
Started in: 2014
It is an AI-powered fresh food aggregator and brings a “Seed-to-plate” platform. It syncs real-time production with real-time consumption of super perishable fruits and vegetables with the help of predictive analytics, precision farming, and just-in-time harvests. Last year, it raised $2 million from Rebright Partners, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital and Lesing Artha, a subsidiary of Rianta Capital.
DeHaat
Founder: Shashank Kumar
Started in: 2012
DeHaat provides AI-enabled technologies to disrupt the supply chain and production efficiency and services like distributing high-quality agricultural inputs and financial services. With the help of data science, agriscience and machine learning technologies, it is working on an AI engine that will correlate the parameters that impact agriculture. Through predictive analytics, it will provide early warning solutions for better production and prediction. Presently, the company operates in Bihar, UP, Odisha, and West Bengal. It aims to bring its services to 5 million farmers by 2024. It raised $115 million in Series D funding in October 2021 and has raised a total of $164.3 million in funding over 6 rounds.
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