Mahindra-Qualcomm-backed Deep Tech Startup Carnot Technology Enters the Agri Fintech Space

Carnot Technology join hands With Avanti Finance to offer Industry’s first cutting-edge financing solutions based on IoT data dedicated to the Rental Entrepreneurs

Carnot Technologies, India’s leading agri AI-IoT platform backed by Mahindra begins a strategic partnership with Avanti Finance. Having revolutionized the tractor renting module in India with their deep tech that monitors tractors and improves earning potential of Rental Entrepreneurs, Carnot now forays into the agri-fintech space. Through this strategic partnership, Carnot has launched the Industry’s first working capital credit access while leveraging IoT data as well as unique tech cuapabilities and resources.

Carnot currently works with more than 26,000 rental entrepreneurs, a specific set of communities in the rural ecosystem who are the driving force behind the mechanization in India. The rental business is seasonal and REs capital investment is at risk for a long time as payment from the farmers is often delayed. This RE community heavily relies on informal sources of lending and uses its hard-earned savings to continue its business operations.

Pushkar Limaye - Co-Founder and CTO

Through this unique partnership, Carnot Technology and Avanti Finance have created an apt credit product that will help REs manage their business operations and improve their working capital requirements.

With an AI-enabled IoT Kit connected to tractors, REs uses the mobile-based application for real-time live tracking of their assets, exact acreages of work done, fuel status, and Accounting solutions. With a first-of-its-kind data infrastructure model, this partnership will enable new ways to credit underwrite the customers, allowing them to access tailored credit solutions based on their cash flow.

Pushkar Limaye, CTO & Co-Founder of Carnot Technologies, said “Carnot’s vision is to build products and solutions to help Bharat’s rental entrepreneurs succeed. Easy access to financing solutions is central to their livelihood, which is highly seasonal in nature. Our partnership with Avanti Finance is a perfect example of how agri-tech companies can work with lenders and deliver first-of-its-kind innovative solutions.”

“We at Avanti are excited about this partnership with Carnot. Together we will be able to further serve customers in the Agri value chain including farm-implements. In line with our mission of supporting livelihoods and inclusion, this partnership will enable credit access to farmers by involving all stakeholders in the ecosystem. This will be possible by combining Avanti’s platform with Carnot’s on ground technological solutions.” says Sunil Kumar Tadepalli, Chief of Partnerships, Avanti Finance.

About Carnot Technology -

 
Carnot Tech, India’s leading AI-enabled Agri IoT platform. Initially established as a tech-enabled solution to increase visibility about the automobile movement, the company pivoted to agri-tech in 2017 and is now the only company in India focused on the growth of Rental Entrepreneurs, a community of more than 60 Lac people in the tractor rental business. Backed by, Mahindra And Mahindra with strategic investment, Carnot Technology is a Service contractor for the Krish-e app the company is helping Mahindra and Mahindra tap into the farmer community to reach a wider audience of first-time tractor buyers.
The IoT platform Simha (rebranded to Krish-e Rental) by Carnot Technology 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. What began with 3 IITians is now a company of over 70+ team members, operating in more than 8 states and impacting over 1.5 Lac farmers.

Carnot Tech is now working on its global expansion. The company has already started catering to Rental Entrepreneurs in Europe and Africa and is witnessing a massive response to its product.

About Avanti Finance

Avanti’s mission is to enable sustainable livelihoods and empower the next 100 million households through accessible and affordable financial services. It is building a co-creation platform that fosters hyperlocal livelihood innovation and mass customisation. Avanti believes community-centric systems enable the digitisation of the social trust of the users, which is critical to building scale in the unbanked segment. For more information see www.avantifinance.in

Winners Announced for Gov Tech-Thon 2020 - FitForFuture Team secures 1st Place for Its Innovative Automated Vehicle Fitness Checks Prototype

Over 1300 bright minds across India come together at Gov Tech-Thon 2020 to solve grassroot problems

National Informatics Centre, IEEE and Oracle joined hands organized nationwide virtual hackathon

Gov-Tech-Thon 2020, a 36 hours, pan-India virtual hackathon organized by IEEE, National Informatics Centre (NIC) and Oracle, under the aegis of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India, witnessed a successful conclusion on 1st November, 2020. The virtual hackathon received registrations from over 1300 aspirants forming 390 teams. The hackathon webpage witnessed over 15,000 visitors in 2 weeks.

Shortlisted 447 enthusiasts from 100 teams participated in the Hackathon on the five problem statements provided by 3 central Government Ministries – Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Ministry of Road Transport and Highway and Ministry of Education.

A thorough assessment of proposals was done by a panel of 27 jurors from the industry, academia and Government.

The five challenges seeking innovative solutions from Gov Tech-Thon 2020 were

1. Suggest alternate crops or crop rotation for farmers during different seasons using artificial intelligence technology, considering the terrain and local challenges to increase the productivity
2. Seed supply chain is a complex ecosystem involving various stakeholders. Address the issues of poor seed quality effectivelybytracing the seeds using BlockChain technology 
3. A mobile / web based application for scanning, resizing and uploading documents (as required) in a single flow 
4. A tool for monitoring online exams from homes / institutions through a combination of remote-supervision software and web cam. System should ensure necessary authentication, control, fraud detection and compliance, using appropriate technology like AI / ML etc. 
5. A self-learning tool for automating Vehicle Fitness Test procedures transparently 

First place was secured by FitForFuture team from Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions Private Limited, for demonstrating an innovative solution prototype for automating vehicle fitness checks, second prize went to HackDemons of Indian Institute of Information Technology Vadodara for providing secure solution for delivering unsupervised tests remotely and Orange team from PES University Bengaluru secured third prize for providing a unique solution for seed certification using BlockChain technology.

The valedictory function on November 1 2020 witnessed participation from senior officials representing Ministries of Agriculture, Education and Transport as well as senior leaders from NIC, IEEE Computer Society board member Prof. Ramalatha Marimuthu, Oracle including jury members and mentors.

Dr. Neeta Verma, Director General, NIC, while addressing the Valedictory function of Gov Tech-Thon 2020, said that these virtual hackathon displayed a unique combination of social sector and emerging technologies. She also highlighted that the Hackathon has enabled the use of emerging technologies for social inclusion, empowerment of people & overall upliftment of the nation.

Melissa Russel, Executive Director of the Computer Society, said “We were so pleased to partner with NIC and Oracle for this event. The IEEE Computer Society has a strong membership base in India and opportunities like Gov-TechThon provide valuable ways for professionals to engage, network and utilize their skills to help solve challenging problems."

Shailender Kumar, Regional Managing Director, Oracle India, said “It was a great collaboration, and a great platform to seed innovation ideas. I was very fascinated with the prototype solutions that were submitted and it gives me an immense sense of pride to see our youth contributing to a better tomorrow. I wish the winners all the best. Oracle stays committed to innovation and to new ideas.”

AgriTech Startup MoooFarm Raises €500K from Rockstart and Navus Ventures

Gurugram-based Agritech startup, MoooFarm, has raised €500k (about INR 43.56 Lakhs) in pre-seed funding led by Navus Ventures, a Dutch investment fund, with participation from Amsterdam-based global accelerator-VC Rockstart. MoooFarm is part of the Rockstart AgriFood 2020 batch and has managed to raise this investment only four months into the program. The startup plans to use the funding to strengthen their product-market fit and hire key technology talent to launch new services to farmers. 

Mooofarm, which received a $15,000 grant from Microsoft in May last year, had earlier raised $100K in convertible note from Rockstart. The startup also won 1st prize in Govt of India's Startup India initiated Animal Husbandry Grand Challenge.

Founded in 2018, by Aashna Singh and Param Singh,  Mooofarm bridges the technology gap to help marginalized dairy farmers. The startup is working in India to build sustainable, inclusive, efficient, and nutritious food systems for 75 million dairy farmers and over 1 billion consumers. MoooFarm is disrupting the $120Bn Indian dairy industry through its mobile application. 

We are thrilled to have both Rockstart and Navus Ventures join MoooFarm in its pre-seed round. This funding will assist us in further strengthening our product-market fit and hire key technology talent to launch new services to our farmers. Both Navus Ventures with its close ties with Lely (farming innovator) and Rockstart will help us draw from their large pool of knowledge, networks and experience in the agriculture and dairy sector. Together we are on our mission to make farmers prosperous," said Param Singh, Founder, MoooFarm.

Using an Uber-like model, Moofarm's mobile application allows farmers to connect virtually and schedule physical visits with veterinarians and artificial insemination technicians. The app provides agricultural extension, farm management tools, access to qualified veterinarians, and an online community to support with increasing milk yields and reducing costs. In its one and a half years of operation, MoooFarm has helped 23,000 dairy farmers increase their daily milk yield and make on average an extra €34 ($40) per month.

In a statement, Eduard Meijer, Managing Director, Navus Ventures, said "MoooFarm, with its developed platform, that can link all elements needed for optimized production of milk and dairy products, can make a huge contribution to improving the availability of high quality and affordable dairy products to sustain the growing worldwide demand. By proving support to MoooFarm, Navus Ventures is excited to be able to contribute to a sustainable and profitable future for Indian dairy farmers."

Mark Durno, Managing Partner, Rockstart AgriFood, said, It’s our purpose at Rockstart to empower founders who are driving positive change. Therefore, we are delighted to co-invest with a trusted partner, Navus Ventures, and we are excited to continue to work alongside the MoooFarm team, who will help enable Indian dairy farmers to have better animal health and economic opportunities."

Agritech Start-up 'Freshokartz' Raises Pre-Series a Round of USD 1.4 Million to Fund Rapid Growth

Freshokartz Agri Products Pvt. Limited, a premier Agri-tech startup has received INR 10 Crore ($1.4 Million) pre-series A funding from Rajasthan Venture Capital Fund (RVCF) and AWE (Achieving Women Equity) Funds to finance its rapid technology rollout while scaling its operations as a provider of premier technology-enabled omnichannel supply chain optimizing solutions along with agronomy advisory and output linkages.

Speaking on the success of Freshokartz latest round of funding, Rajendra Lora, Founder noted, "Our company has witnessed significant growth even during COVID-19 crisis, which is driven by our team's differentiated understanding of India's agricultural supply chain, its markets and its participants given our personal farming backgrounds. This helps us execute effectively as an effective and integrated agriculture supply chain company. Getting RVCF and AWE Funds' investment support will help expand and consolidate our footprint not only in Rajasthan but also in neighboring states." 

Chandrakanta, Co-founder remarked, "We are especially delighted with the powerful combination of our two investors who bring significant synergistic value to our company in helping us develop our organization with more than just capital. The vast experiences of the two teams, their associated networks and their focus on not only commercial returns but also a genuine interest in improvement in lives of farmers, especially women farmers, has made this a very valuable partnership."

Freshokartz is operating 40 physical centers in Rajasthan and working with more than 90,000 farmers. Freshokartz has target to reach 1 Million farmers in next 12-15 months. Freshokartz is working with more than 100 Agri Inputs companies including UPL, Chambal Fertilizers to provide best Agri inputs to farmer's doorsteps. Freshokartz has developed mobile app for farmers where farmers can place order from nearby centers. The business model has been built bottom-up where most of the team comes from farming background and are providing solutions to the farm level pain points of the farmers.

Freshokartz provides soil-based crop and fertilisers recommendation to farmers through Agronomist and through call center. Freshokartz has opened network or digitalized physical agri kiosks at the village level and deliver Agri advisory, inputs and collect farmer output through centers or their doorsteps. Freshokartz also facilitates farmers in getting financial/insurance through partners. Freshokartz is building a complete hybrid model for farmers where farmers get Pre and Postharvest agriculture-related services.

Freshokartz will be using these funds for expansion within Rajasthan and other nearby states like Haryana, M.P, U.P and other northern states of India. The Funds will be used in capacity building, Tech development and geographic expansion.

Gaurav Chowdhry, VP at RVCF said, "It is pertinent for us to look at startups which can sustain in these challenging times by differentiation and innovation. By focusing on farmer's multitude of farming needs, Freshokartz is providing full stack solutions for better farm outcomes. The team has strong execution capabilities and expect to see significant growth in the coming years. We are happy to partner with Freshokartz in the journey."


Seema Chaturvedi, Founder & Managing Partner of AWE Funds observed, "At AWE Funds, given our team's deep agri expertise, we believe that the agri-tech industry is poised for rapid growth. Furthermore, we found FAPL's focus on appropriate and adaptable farmer-centric technology especially on the downstream input side of the supply chain to be a very compelling investment thesis. Added to the fact that the main beneficiaries are marginal farmers of whom 70% are women, this investment is very aligned with our gender lens focused investment mandate in Achieving Women Equity."

About Freshokartz Agri Products Private Limited (FAPL)

Founded in 2016, by Rajendra Lora and Chandrakanta, the agtech startup provides technology-enabled full stack of services to small and marginal farmers including agricultural inputs, crop advisory, output linkages, crop insurance and financing to optimize a currently inefficient agri supply chain while enhancing price realization by farmers.

About RVCF

Rajasthan Venture Capital Fund (RVCF) is operational since 2002 and is currently investing out of its third fund. The fund invests in Early and Growth stage transformative companies in Agri/Food, IT/ITES, Healthcare, Education space.

About AWE Funds

AWE Funds is an early growth equity fund investing in innovative enterprises to promote gender equity. We use AWE Funds' proprietary gender lens to invest pre-series A, Series A rounds in women owned, led or influenced businesses in AgriTech, HealthTech, EdTech, Finatech & Sustainability (Cleantech & Water) business in India.

Gov-TechThon 2020 - Hackathon to Incubate Ideas, Boost Innovation and Use Technology in Agriculture

• National Informatics Centre (NIC), IEEE Computer Society and Oracle to organise Gov Tech- Thon 2020 from 30 Oct 2020 to 1 Nov 2020 under aegis of MEITY
• The virtual hackathon aims to incubate new ideas, boost innovation and use technology in agriculture and allied sectors
• Secretary Meity releases the Online Registration portal ‘https://www.computer.org/education/oracle_hackathon_2020’; The hackathon is open for registration.

Representative Image Only

Building upon the ideation and guidance from the Prime Minister and under the aegis of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), National Informatics Centre (NIC), IEEE Computer Society and Oracle have come together yesterday to announce Gov Tech-Thon 2020, to incubate new ideas, boost innovation and use technology in agriculture and allied sectors.

Shri Ajay Sawhney, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology announced the Hackathon by releasing the Online Registration portal ‘https://www.computer.org/education/oracle_hackathon_2020’. Shri Sawhney appreciated the efforts by National Informatics Centre, IEEE and Oracle for coming together to organise this hackathon. He pointed out that the youngsters are an important part of India’s digital ecosystem and he looks forward to their participation in the hackathon and their solutions to the challenges.

Dr. Neeta Verma, Director General, NIC in her address at the release of online portal for 'Gov Tech-Thon 2020', said that the Hackathon is a step towards developing a digital ecosystem with more emerging technologies. She stated that Gov Tech-Thon 2020 will spur a lot of ideas, proof of concepts, working models for innovation and inclusion in Government services.

Dr Savita Dawar, Deputy Director General, NIC gave a brief introduction to the five challenges including AI based crop recommendations , Blockchain based seed certification, Automated vigilance in exams/tests, Automated fitness check process for commercial vehicles and Easy document uploads , from Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Ministry of Education, and Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in India which require immediate solutions.

Shri Harish Mysore, Senior Director and Head of IEEE India Operations said, “IEEE has been empowering engineers for over a century, helping advance technology across sectors. This partnership with NIC and Oracle will help increase the use of technology, reduce the digital divide in agriculture, transportation and education and will help us deliver better governance to citizens of India.”

Shri Shailender Kumar, Regional Managing Director, Oracle India, said “To transform India into a digital and knowledge economy, we must first digitally empower all its people, key economic sectors and allied communities. We are proud to join hands with NIC and IEEE for Gov Tech-Thon 2020 and look forward to supporting local innovation in all key areas identified.”

Gov Tech-Thon 2020, a pan India 36 hours virtual Hackathon, to be organised from 30 October to 1st November, 2020. The Hackathon will be facilitated by IEEE, a trusted voice for engineering, computing and technology information. Registrations for Gov Tech-Thon 2020 are open.

The virtual hackathon is open to students, working professionals, startups, freelance technologists, faculty, and other IT service firms in India. During the hackathon, participants will receive mentorship and advice from technical experts from NIC, IEEE and Oracle, as well as senior domain experts from the Ministries of Agriculture, Education and Transport Departments, Government of India.

Participating teams will have access to the latest tools from Oracle, Oracle Autonomous Database, built-in and easy-to-use cloud security, and compute – to help them develop prototypes that are practical and scalable. Additionally, they will be able to leverage open source technologies that bring benefits of high performance, reliability and data security.

About National Informatics Centre (NIC)

National Informatics Centre (NIC) is attached office of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). NIC was established in 1976, and has rich experience in providing ICT and eGovernance support to the Government for the last 4 decades and helping bridge the digital divide. It has emerged as a promoter of digital opportunities for sustainable development. NIC spearheaded “Informatics-Led-Development” by implementing ICT applications in social and public administration and facilitates electronic delivery of services to the government (G2G), business (G2B), citizen (G2C) and government employee (G2E). NIC, through its ICT Network, “NICNET”, has institutional linkages with all the Ministries /Departments of the Central Government, 37 State Governments/ Union Territories, and about 720+ District Administrations of India.

NIC has been closely associated with the Government in different aspects of Governance besides establishing a Nationwide State-of-the-Art ICT Infrastructure, it has also built a large number of digital solutions to support the government at various levels, making the last-mile delivery of government services to the citizens a reality.

About IEEE Computer Society

IEEE is the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. IEEE and its members inspire a global community to innovate for a better tomorrow through its more than 419,000 members in over 160 countries. For more information about IEEE, please visit www.ieee.org.

The IEEE Computer Society is the premier source for information, inspiration, and collaboration in computer science and engineering. Connecting members worldwide, the Computer Society empowers the people who advance technology by delivering tools for individuals at all stages of their professional careers. For more information about IEEE Computer Society, visit www.computer.org

About Oracle

The Oracle Cloud offers a complete suite of integrated applications for Sales, Service, Marketing, Human Resources, Finance, Supply Chain and Manufacturing, plus Highly Automated and Secure Generation 2 Infrastructure featuring the Oracle Autonomous Database. For more information about Oracle (NYSE: ORCL), please visit us at www.oracle.com.

Omnivore launches The Future of Indian Agriculture and Food Systems: Vision 2030 Report

Omnivore, India’s leading agritech venture capital firm, today launched its report on The Future of Indian Agriculture and Food Systems: Vision 2030. The report, a bold vision for agritech, explores how new technologies, demographic trends, and climate change will impact Indian agriculture and food systems over the next decade.

The report highlights eight key trends, as detailed below, that will drive the future of agriculture in India, with the critical caveat that climate change could negate this positive direction if not reckoned with:

• Precision agriculture and automation creating a “farm of one”
• Biotechnology will produce tastier, more nutritious, and eco-friendly crops
• Farms & farmers will be connected, digitized, and smart
• Farmer-consumer intimacy will improve value for both
• Majority of rural jobs will be of higher value and non-agro
• More fresh greens, harvested and delivered, on-demand
• Diversity, quality, and sustainability of food sources will increase
• Food will increasingly (and scientifically) replace medicine

The report points out the need for investment in horticulture, dairy, poultry, aquaculture, and food processing. It anticipates a future with significant advances in farm mechanization and automation, including farm robots taking over labor intensive tasks and reducing drudgery. The report further notes that India’s agricultural workforce in the future will be smaller, younger, and more gender diverse, and will move towards higher productivity jobs. Beyond encouraging more womenpreneurs, the rural non-farm economy will become actively digitized, stimulating a mass entrepreneurship movement around agricultural technologies.

Another striking trend that the report points out is Khet to Kirana: the increased demand for traceability and transparency in the food supply chain for both the farmer and the consumer. With middle class driving consumption, the growing concern of food hygiene, nutrition, and sustainability will increase awareness about labels and food hygiene. Over 90% of kirana stores across the country will be digitized by 2025 and be linked to modern traceable logistics which will further benefit the transparency of supply chain between the farmer and consumer.

Commenting on the report, Jinesh Shah, Managing Partner, Omnivore said, “India’s agritech sector is witnessing a paradigm shift catalysed by digitisation and rural smartphone penetration. Spearheading this change are agritech startups who are driving a transformation in Indian agriculture towards profitability, resilience, nutrition, and sustainability. Our Vision 2030 report clearly shows that innovation, technology, and agritech entrepreneurship will deliver tremendous growth in the next decade.”

The Future of Indian Agriculture and Food Systems: Vision 2030 was built on the advice and inputs of a range of experts, entrepreneurs, and advisors in the agricultural ecosystem in India and abroad, who added practical knowledge and experience to statistical trends. This study was commissioned before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, but many of the trends have been accelerated by the pandemic, particularly those associated with digitalization, food safety, and traceability. Fundamentally, Omnivore has a philosophy of optimism for the future, and belief in the importance of disruption of the status quo. Authored by Umang Prabhakar (previously with Dalberg) and Subinder Khurana (a Venture Partner at Omnivore based in Delhi), the entire Omnivore team helped brainstorm ideas and offered support throughout the study.

About Omnivore

Omnivore is a venture capital firm, based in India, that funds entrepreneurs building the future of agriculture and food systems. Omnivore pioneered agritech investing in India, backing over 20 startups since 2011. Every day, Omnivore portfolio companies drive agricultural prosperity and transform food systems across India, making farming more profitable, resilient, and sustainable. Omnivore’s current agritech investment themes include Farmer Platforms, Precision Agriculture, Rural Fintech, B2B Agri Marketplaces, Innovative Foods, Agribusiness SaaS, Post-Harvest Technologies, Agri Biotech, and Farm to Consumer (F2C) Brands.

Agri-Tech Startup WayCool Receives $114K from Dutch Development Bank FMO

• The grant will be used to support farmers with Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kits and Soil Testing kits


• It will benefit 15,000 farmers across 5 states in India (Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, and Maharashtra) under WayCool's flagship Outgrow Program for farmers


• Soil Testing kits will help improve farmers' income & reduce food wastage

FMO, the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank, has allocated a grant of U$ 114K to WayCool Foods, for procurement and distribution of dual-purpose PPE kits and enablement of on-site Soil testing to farmers. It follows WayCool's latest Debt Financing round of U$ 5.5 million, that was guaranteed by U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC).

The distribution is being carried out under the Outgrow Program, WayCools flagship program for farmers. 15,000 small holding farmers across 5 states in India will benefit through this unique initiative. The dual-purpose PPE kits will help protect farmers during the COVID-19 pandemic, and also shield them during agricultural operations such as pesticide spraying. In-situ Soil testing will enable farmers to get their soil health measured without having to travel, thus facilitating effective soil management while maintaining social distancing.

Outgrow is WayCool's agricultural extension program that engages with farmers through their entire cultivation cycle, from planning to inputs to harvesting, substantially increasing profitability of the farmer, reducing their risk, and guaranteeing farmers 270 days of steady income by leveraging a host of emerging technologies.

WayCool has been leading efforts to help the Indian farmer cope with the current crisis, through various channels. Most recently, the company had run a crowd funding campaign for PPE kits through Milaap. It had also driven an awareness campaign showcasing the efforts of the farmer & trucker (the invisible hands in the agri supply chain). The FMO grant helps WayCool build upon this effort.

Sendhil Kumar Natarajan, Head-Agri initiatives, WayCool Foods, commenting on the initiative said, "Farmers are essential service providers as they feed the nation. They are also very vulnerable during disruptive events such as the ongoing pandemic. Our measures have focussed on enabling the farmers earn their livelihood while reducing the risks they face. The FMO grant will help us in protecting a significantly larger number of farmers and we thank FMO for their timely support."

FMO's grant demonstrates their commitment to supporting communities that require India's food and agriculture distribution sector.

Speaking about the initiative, Jaap Reinking, Director, Private Equity, FMO said, "We are proud to offer additional support during this period. India has experienced one of the world's strictest lockdowns. These measures left little recourse for the country's millions of farmers, particularly those in the poorest provinces, who were unable to get access to essentials and protective equipment. The initiative's goal is to find affordable and reliable sources of PPE and ensure these are allocated where they are needed most. Additionally, this grant will be used to procure Soil Testing kits for farmers, which will ultimately improve their income and reduce wastage."

WayCool procures, processes, and distributes a range of food products including fresh produce, staples, and dairy products, moving over 250 tonnes of food every day to 11,000 clients across South India. The company operates a soil-to-sale model, engaging deeply with a base of 40,000 farmers in more than 50 regions across India, while bringing efficiency through its direct supply chain model. The Company plans to accelerate profitability and improve on its capital efficient model by continuing to invest in technology and automation across the value chain.

WayCool has previously raised three rounds of funding from Lightbox, LGT Lightstone Aspada, FMO, Caspian Impact Investment, and Northern Arc Capital Ltd.

About FMO

FMO is the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank based out of Hague, Netherlands. FMO invests in over 85 countries, focusing on emerging markets, supporting jobs and income generation, and improving peoples lives in those parts of the world where this makes the biggest difference. Their role extends beyond financing, as they help businesses to operate and grow transparently in an environmentally and socially responsible manner.

About WayCool Foods Pvt. Ltd.

WayCool Foods, founded in July 2015 by Sanjay Dasari and Karthik Jayaraman, is India's fastest growing food development & distribution platform leveraging innovative technology to scale-up and operate a complex supply chain. The company operates a full stack, broadline product range across multiple channels and categories like fresh produce, staples and dairy serving over 11,000 clients in the general trade, modern trade, and food services space.

Agritech Firm Arya Launches A2ZGodaam, An Aggregator to Locate Agri-Warehouses in India

Omnivore and Lightstone Aspada backed post-harvest agri-tech startup Arya Collateral has launched A2ZGodaam, a one-stop comprehensive digital platform for search, discovery and fulfilment of warehousing for farmers, FPOs, Corporates and other stakeholders like traders and small aggregators. Launched on the occasion of Independence Day, the platform aims to empower farmers, and their organizations to gain freedom from the tedious activity of accessing warehouses, finance and other post-harvest services. For Corporates and other private players, the tech-enabled platform facilitates an end-to-end process for warehousing of agri-commodities.

This simple, integrated and easy to use platform helps users choose ancillary services like warehouse management, finance, transportation, labor, quality testing and commodity preservation services, through a robust technology-enabled back-end ecosystem. It also enables users to sell their stored produce on the platform by accessing multiple buyers across the country with complete assurance on quality.

A2ZGodaam envisages democratizing available agricultural storage infrastructure in the country through imparting discovery and transparency. It provides savings for all stakeholders by cost optimization in various services such as warehouse management services, financing solutions, quality assayers, insurance, and logistics through economies of scale. These savings will get passed down to users resulting in income appreciation for them.

Anand Chandra, Executive Director, Arya

Anand Chandra, Executive Director at Arya shared, “This Independence Day, we are helping the backbone of our society to gain independence from the rigid and complex system of Post-Harvest storage services. The inclusion of technology into the system is very crucial. Warehousing and storage of commodities cannot be a standalone offering. Apart from democratizing the available agri storage infrastructure in the country, a unique proposition offered by A2ZGodaam is the integration of the platform with other ancillary services along with financial and market linkages. The service will help all users for a seamless experience regarding warehousing and other post-harvest services.”

India has about 143 million tonnes of constructed warehousing capacity. Studies suggest that as a country, India has a storage gap in excess of 35%. This is further acute if we consider requirements versus availability in primary agriculture centers which are closer to the farm gate. On the other hand, it is also ironic that despite the aforementioned shortage of space, large warehousing spaces remain unutilized. The platform is an online aggregation solution for agri-warehouses and other post-harvest solutions to address the needs of farmers, FPOs and other value chain stakeholders. The platform aims to organize the traditionally unorganized warehousing sector.

A2ZGodaam is a digital extension of Arya’s current business model and has been tested across a wide range of customers. It currently has more than 2000 warehouses listed with an aggregated area of about 30 million sq. ft. These warehouses store over 2.5 million tonnes of agri-commodities and have enabled finance of Rs. 2000 Crores from various Banks and Aryadhan Financial Solutions, Arya’s NBFC subsidiary. The platform is expected to facilitate the discovery of over 20000 agri-warehouses in the country and enable finance in excess of Rs.15,000 Crores.

The platform supplements the government's objective of helping farmers and FPOs to access warehouses and other post-harvest services at the click of a button. It also allows farmers to access newer buyers for their produce in line with the recent relaxations in the APMC Act. The platform is also in line with the government’s recently approved near farm Agri-Infra fund which will help to address the problems of infrastructure in the agricultural sector. It gains immense relevance in the post-COVID neo normal.

In March 2020, Omnivore and Lightstone ASPADA participated in a pre-series B funding round of USD 6 million in ARYA to support its Agritech and Fintech offerings. The company is now in the process of raising an additional USD 15 million to strengthen and scale these initiatives.

About Arya Collateral Warehousing Services: Arya was incorporated in 1982. In 2002 it forayed into agribusiness with a core business of warehousing and collateral management and is now present across 20 states of India. The company is a significant player in the post-harvest agriculture ecosystem. It is a prominent service provider to agriculture corporations and the FPO ecosystem in catering to their warehousing and post-harvest needs. Arya manages 2.7 Million Tonnes of commodities through its network of 1,500 warehouses with an AUM of INR 55 Bn. It also has a 100% owned NBFC, Aryadhan, with a strong client base covering farmers, FPOs, processors and corporates and completed loan disbursements over Rs 220 Crores and has already turned profitable. Arya has raised $9M funding by strong investors in the Agri-tech space including LGT Lightstone Aspada and Omnivore till now.

Agritech Moved Top of its Charts in 2020 at 3X of Buzz in May'20 compared to March'20

Top newsmakers associated with the term agritech include Narendra Modi, Nirmala Sitharaman, sector-experts like Mark Kahn of Omnivore

Wizikey Agritech industry report reveals that Ninjacart emerges as the buzz-maker followed by Dehaat and Jumbotail in India

A post pandemic world is truly seeing a resurgence of primary sectors and reshaping the world we live in. Agriculture’s new avatar has technology at the core of it. The Wizikey Agritech Report by Wizikey, Asia’s fastest-growing PR- SAAS Startup, highlights that Agritech gained spotlight in the after COVID-19 world. In an analysis of a million+ news articles, Agritech moved top of its charts in 2020 at 3x of buzz in May 2020 compared to March 2020 with the index for the term moving from 43 in March 2020 to 156 in May 2020. 

Factors such as locusts attack, venture funding & investments, and the economic stimulus on agriculture contributed to this sudden uptick in popularity.

Top newsmakers associated with the term agritech include Narendra Modi, Nirmala Sitharaman, sector-experts like Mark Kahn of Omnivore, Suniti Gupta of Lateral Praxis and Devendra Chandani of Intello Labs.

Commenting on the report, Anshul Sushil CEO & Co-founder at Wizikey said, “Agritech is finally getting its fair share of attention and has caught eyeballs for all the right reasons - the innovation and research that is happening in India right now will change the way we all get food from farm to fork. The technology transformation in the industry will ensure direct supply and smoother distribution."

Referring to the report, Mark Kahn, Managing Partner at Omnivore, said, “At Omnivore, we believe this is the decade for agritech and for startups focused on Bharat. It’s great to see Wizikey bringing attention to our sunrise sector.”

According to the Wizikey Agritech Report, the increase in “home-grown start-ups” catapulted buzz in agritech during the pandemic. Ninjacart, India's largest tech-driven supply chain platform, created the most buzz in India followed by Dehaat and Jumbotail. With technology surrounding agriculture like drones, farm to fork, improved farm output technologies witnessing a lot of dialogues, the sector has seen remarkable growth after COVID-19. The Indian Agritech Startups have brought to solve the challenges of agriculture and food production. The companies are supporting the Agritech ecosystem in maximizing productivity, increasing supply chain efficiency, and improving market linkages. Due to the increase in the demand for such solutions in the market, sentiment towards the Agritech industry has been mostly neutral, and if on an extreme side, then positive more than negative- especially during March to May 2020.

Report Methodology

Wizikey Agritech Report was prepared by indexing all the category news chronologically and as per their average audience views. Once the top buzz-makers were identified, the volume of news made by each of them was analyzed and information was drawn on the following aspects. The report also does a comparative analysis of the before & after COVID-19 era to understand the overall sentiment of the industry. The Data Analytics Team at Wizikey identified the top trending words in the Agritech industry through Natural Language Processing(NLP) and visualized them in form of a word cloud where topics appearing larger in the word cloud are trending in the Agritech Sector. The word cloud study highlighted the change of buzzwords in the Agritech industry before and after the global outbreak.
   
About Wizikey 

Wizikey is a subscription-based Communication SaaS that helps businesses identify and connect with relevant media influencers and subject matter experts. With Wizikey's data intelligence, companies can create campaigns, target and engage influencers and journalists, measure and optimize to scale their brand-building efforts. 

Launched in 2019, it has garnered 1000+ users over 250+ businesses who have created more than 2500 stories in over 9 languages. With investors like Ajai Chowdhry (Co-founder, HCL), Alok Mittal (Co-founder and CEO, Indifi), Ambarish Raghuvanshi (ex-CFO, Info Edge), Keshav R Murugesh (CEO, WNS), Raman Roy (Chairman, NASSCOM and Chairman, Quattro), Sanjiv Bajaj (CEO, Bajaj Finserv) and the Indian Angel Fund among others, it is striving every day to ensure businesses can get the credibility and trust which they deserve.

Infoedge backed Agri-Tech Startup Gramophone Ties up with Local Rural Entrepreneurs for Last Mile Product Delivery

In order to support the disrupted rural supply chain, Gramophone has tied up with the local young rural entrepreneurs for last mile delivery which resulted in double business in last three months as compared to previous year.

One of the main challenges in the agriculture supply chain is the last mile - the final leg from the distribution centre to the customer. If we look at the need of the hour is to provide agri inputs to the farmers as quickly as possible, within 1-2 days, especially seeds and crop protection, which contribute to over 80% of gramophone’s product portfolio.

Gramophone’s distribution model has lesser time of shipment of around 1-2 days only. To provide products to farmer quickly, Gramophone’s inventory need to be closer to the customers, and with this principle, they have created a decentralized distribution model with the setup of Gram Uday centers.

From these Gram Uday centers, Gramophone is further moving the material to different clusters, the geographical indicators served by their farm advisors, from where the product is finally delivered to the farmers at their doorstep. With this model, their delivery time has reduced from 4-5 days to 1-2 days as they don’t need it consolidate the demand to the same extent as any other e-commerce company who operate out of centralized model.

These young rural entrepreneurs have delivery tie ups with Gramophone, creating a second source of income for these entrepreneurs. This last mile delivery network is also helping gramophone to serve farmers better. In addition to this, the company has also tied up with local shops in the villages to act like a micro warehouses, keeping various parcels of the farmers nearby. From these partner shops, their delivery boys pickup and deliver it to the farmers directly.

The company’s supply chain model has been designed in a way that it can demonstrate its fruit-fullness even at times of crisis. Cotton and chilli are widely cultivated in the Barwani, Khandwa and Burhan districts during these months. We are delivering all the required Agri Inputs at the doorstep of farmers in these districts.

“We had strategically built our operational model to have deeper penetrations through our Omnichannel approach. Our technology architecture was geared to deliver Agronomic Intelligence personalised to the farm level of a farmer who worked efficiently without any ground support. With a decentralised demand generation and delivery model, we could not only aggressively grow our business but also gain the TRUST of the farmers in such time.” Tauseef Khan, Co-Founder at Gramophone.

Fluence Launches New Modules of LED VYPR Top Light Series with Innovated PhysioSpec™ Spectra for Greenhouse Cultivators

Fluence by OSRAM (Fluence), a leading global provider of energy-efficient LED lighting solutions for commercial agriculture production, announced today the launch of four additional spectra on its VYPR top light series, featuring market-leading efficacies up to 3.8 mol/J. From broad white to high red, Fluence's extended PhysioSpec™ spectra enable growers to optimize lighting strategies for any crop in any growth stage or geographic location.

"In our relentless pursuit of innovative lighting solutions for crop cultivation, we've conducted in-depth research on plant response under various spectra with a range of crops," said David Cohen, CEO of Fluence. "One of the biggest challenges for cultivators around the world is the ability to tailor lighting strategies to their specific crops and environments. We're excited to help them solve that challenge with a greater variety of light spectra to meet their unique needs."

With expanded PhysioSpec™ spectra, the VYPR top light series offers higher efficacies (up to 3.8 mol/J) and higher photosynthetic photon flux (PPF) (up to 2330 mol/s) per fixture over comparable lighting technologies.

The PhysioSpec™ BROAD spectra offers continuous spectral emission across PAR 400 to 700 nm wavelength range, balancing energy efficiency with quality of light for desired plant response and human work environment.

The PhysioSpec™ DUAL spectra features red and blue spectral emission bands that maximize energy efficiency, helping to reduce energy costs and operational expenses for growers.

The latest VYPR top lighting system also features a patented thermal management technology, more compact and efficient power supplies, three new mounting options for flexible installation and new reflectors. Built for greenhouses and high-bay indoor cultivators producing year-round, the VYPR series enables growers to maintain predictable production, increase crop yields and improve plant quality compared to conventional production systems.

"Growers have the best understanding of their crops in their respective cultivation environments," said Timo Bongartz, Fluence's General Manager for Europe, Middle East and Africa. "Choosing and implementing a supplemental lighting strategy should be a collaborative process. With our expanded spectra and new top light features, we are empowered with more tools to help our customers achieve their growing targets, enabling growers to save energy when possible, optimize light uniformity and increase light levels."

About Fluence by OSRAM

Fluence Bioengineering, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of OSRAM, creates the most powerful and energy-efficient LED lighting solutions for commercial crop production and research applications. Fluence is committed to enabling more efficient crop production with the world's top vertical farms and greenhouse produce growers. Fluence global headquarters are based in Austin, Texas, with its EMEA headquarters in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

For more information about Fluence, please visit www.fluence.science.

Pioneering Ventures Acquires Lateral Praxis in a Move to Accelerate its Agri-Food Tech Platform Roll-Out

• Pioneering Ventures is a food, finance and tech platform which aims to reinvent the Indian food ecosystem to provide people with healthy food in a sustainable manner


•  Lateral Praxis is helping public and private sector clients to streamline their operations with the aim to promote good and sustainable food production and supply chain  practices


•  The move is aimed at strengthening the reach of technology-based solutions in the Indian food supply chain .


• This acquisition is an important and far-reaching strategic addition to the portfolio of the Swiss-Indian agricultural and food platform Pioneering Ventures

Pioneering Ventures announced newly closed acquisition of Indian agri-tech company Lateral Praxis today. The move is aimed at enhancing downstream reach of tech-enabled solutions for the food supply chain  including information access, apps, data analytics and risk mitigation. The acquisition recognizes significant shifts in the Indian food system  in recent years which bring forward an immence potential for using technology and data to improve operational efficiencies and quality in daily supply chain activities. The systematic generation of data intelligence also allows to create valuable services and improve decision making of all parties in the food ecosystem. 

Founded in 1999 by agri-tech stalwart Suniti Gupta, Lateral Praxis has worked closely with central and state governments, ministries and departments, along with farmer communities at village/panchayat level to build, configure and implement knowledge-based systems. The Mumbai-based company currently works with a strong core team to deliver solutions for online payment platforms, information aggregation and data mining for a varied customer base. 

Speaking about this development, Dr. Pablo Erat, co-founder of Pioneering Ventures, said: “End-to-end supply chain digitization has been a core pillar of our strategy. We have been working successfully with Lateral Praxis for many years and I am confident that the team will further boost our technology and data expertise. The acquisition is an important milestone in the implementation of our strategy  to accelerate the development of our fully integrated food technology platform and help us drive large-scale transformation across the food ecosystem through data intelligence-based services."

Elaborating on this development, Suniti Gupta, Founder-CEO of Lateral Praxis and a known agri-tech expert in India said: “As Indian agriculture and food sector gets ready to embrace next generation, tech-enabled future, the time is ripe for positive disruption. Our experience and core competencies will be augmented well by Pioneering Ventures’ expertise and presence across the food supply chain, helping us jointly scale up our solutions and delivery. We look forward to joining the PV family."

Lateral Praxis aims to create value in our customers' business. We regularly invest in integrating newer technologies into solutions that we provide for our customers. We architect, configure and implement our solutions and ensure long term success through specialized user training. What drives our systems is an understanding of the knowledge behind the framework. We provide elegant, field-proven software. We have a suite of products that go the “last mile” in agriculture, legal compliance, audit tracking and risk management.

Pioneering Ventures is a food, finance and technology platform company based in Switzerland and India. Our mission is to reinvent the Indian food ecosystem to provide people with healthy food in a sustainable manner. We strive to generate superior financial and social returns for all our stakeholders through knowledge and data driven transformation from farm to fork. This is done by re-engineering the way food is produced and supplied and empowering and connecting all partners in the ecosystem.

AgriTech Startup Intello Labs Raises $5.9 Mn in Funding led by Saama Capital to Digitize Quality in Fresh Produce

Intello Labs announced today that it has raised a USD 5.9 million (INR 45 crore) Series A round led by Saama Capital, alongside global agritech funds GROW (Singapore) and SVG Ventures THRIVE (USA). Existing investors Omnivore and Nexus Venture Partners also participated in this round.

Intello Labs digitizes quality across fresh produce supply chains, reducing food waste by detecting variance from specifications and matching output to needs. With $500 billion of global fruits & vegetables (F&V) wasted annually, Intello Labs is bringing transparency and standardization to quality assessment, reducing value risk and food waste. The company aims to become the de-facto quality platform across F&V value chains for trading, procurement, grading, pricing, traceability, and marketing.

Based in Gurgaon, Intello Labs was founded in 2016 by Milan Sharma, Nishant Mishra, Himani Shah and Devendra Chandani. The first three co-founders studied together at IIT Bombay, while Devendra is an MDI Gurgaon postgraduate. Intello Labs’ founding team brings together diverse backgrounds and skill sets, including data science (Milan), computer vision (Nishant), corporate strategy (Himani), and analytics (Devendra). Intello Labs raised a USD 2.0 million Seed round in March 2019 from Nexus Venture Partners and Omnivore.

Intello Labs’ clients include fresh produce growers, packers, aggregators, exporters, processors, foodservice, and retailers. The company is aggressively growing in India while also pursuing global markets, including China, Southeast Asia, and the USA. Some of Intello Labs’ larger clients include Reliance Fresh, Dole, Ocean Spray, and many of the leading e- grocery companies in China and Southeast Asia.

According to Milan Sharma, Co-Founder & CEO of Intello Labs, “This funding will help us accelerate growth in international markets, specifically the USA and across Asia Pacific. There has been a significant spike in interest from these markets over the past few months, which was further accelerated by COVID-19, and now we have the firepower to go after these opportunities. This new demand combined with the stickiness of our existing clients validates the fact that our products bring much-needed transparency and standardization to fresh produce value chains.”

[caption id="attachment_145424" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] [L-R] Devendra Chandani, Nishant-Mishra, Milan Sharma, Himani Shah[/caption]Intello Labs has developed a suite of digital products that leverage AI tools, including computer vision and deep learning. Intello Track is a mobile app for checking quality across the F&V supply chain, which uses smartphone cameras to capture images, and then objectively grades them based on color, size, and visual defects. Intello Sort is a machine that segregates fresh produce based on quality, ensuring 100% adherence to specifications while allowing the sorting of multiple commodities on a single, low-cost, compact line.

Intello Pack monitors F&V quality immediately before customer dispatch, optimizing packing efficiency while helping with the management of packing personnel. Finally, Intello Deep is a handheld NIR scanner that inspects intrinsic quality parameters, allowing for the detection of Brix, pH, TSS, dry matter, moisture, and pesticide residues.

Commenting on the investment, Kiranbir Nag, Partner at Saama Capital, said, “There is a rapid and growing need for better and faster quality assessment of fresh produce across the value chain to improve the end consumers’ experience and to minimize the already high losses through wastages. Intello’s scalable and non-destructive AI based digital suite of solutions is well placed to become an industry standard tool especially for the large buyers of and traders in fresh produce. The team has demonstrated this through its marquee and growing global customer base. We are excited to partner with the team for their next phase of growth.”

Agri-Research Body ICAR Signs Agreement with Patanjali Institute (PBRI) for Research, Training and Education.

The country's premier agri-research body ICAR on Sunday signed an agreement with Hardiwar-based Patanjali Bio Research Institute (PBRI) to undertake research work as well as training and education.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Director General Trilochan Mohapatra and PBRI CEO Acharya Balkrishna in the presence of Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, an official statement said.

Junior Agriculture Ministers Parshottam Rupala and Kailash Choudhary were also present.

Speaking on the occasion, Tomar emphasised that the venture will provide a new opportunity to include new arena to work for both the organisations.

He also urged for promoting organic farming practices across the country.

As per the MoU, the specific plans will be developed to work on collaborative research programmes in areas of national interest related to sustainable agriculture development suitable to different agro-ecologies of the country.

ICAR and PBRI will collaborate in mutually identified areas of training and education where the post graduate students of deemed universities and research institutes of ICAR may undertake internships in various areas of specialization with PBRI.

ICAR said it will assist PBRI in technology demonstration, capacity building, seed production for scaling up popular varieties developed by ICAR and transferring them among the farming community of the country.

The MoU aims to foster close interaction in research, capacity building, seed production, entrepreneurship and skill development, the statement added. PTI LUX

Agri Tech startup WayCool Foods Raises $32 Mn in Funding led by Lightbox

Chennai-headquartered WayCool Foods has raised U$32 Mn in a combination of equity and debt in its Series C round, the company said in a statement yesterday. The round was led by Lightbox and saw participation of FMO, the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank, as well as its current investor LGT Lightstone Aspada. The company has also partnered with InnoVen Capital to raise venture debt as part of this round.

WayCool Foods procures, processes and distributes a wide range of food products including fresh produce, staples and dairy products, moving over 250 tonnes of food every day to 8,000 enterprise clients across Southern India. The company operates a soil-to-sale model, engaging deeply with a base of nearly 40,000 farmers to improve farm income, while bringing efficiency through its direct supply chain model.

The company has stated that it will use the funds raised to automate its supply chain and build the next layer of data analytics required to strengthen supply chain efficiency. It will also develop and expand its range of value-added products to enterprise and retail customers.

Karthik Jayaraman, Co-Founder and CEO, WayCool said, “We are committed to building a lean, efficient and profitable enterprise that makes social impact an integral part of its operations. Lightbox’s deep experience in technology and brand building will greatly help us as we strengthen our digital backbone, and our move into value-added products. FMO’s guidance will be of essence in building a culture of impact orientation across the organization and staying true to the course”.

WayCool is developing a range of branded products and currently has brands such as Freshey’s, Kitchenji, Madhuram and Shuddha. Given our direct relationships throughout the supply chain, it gives us the ability to better project demand and supply for products across various categories such as Fruits, Vegetables, Dairy, Staples, etc.

“We have spent time with the remarkable team led by Karthik and Sanjay at WayCool and the community of farmers on their platform”, says Prashant Mehta, Partner at Lightbox. “We’re thrilled with the achievement and the focus they have on leveraging technology to solve the massive challenges in the food supply chain. We look forward to working with them and positively impacting the livelihood of farmers and build a long-term sustainable business.”

WayCool will also deploy its funds to deepen and widen ‘Outgrow’, its agricultural extension program. The company has recently announced the set-up of its first Agricultural Research Station, where it will collaborate with multiple startups to bring the most relevant production technologies to its expanding farmer base.

Linda Broekhuizen, Chief Investment Officer at FMO, “We are proud to be a partner of WayCool. The company leverages technology and innovative concepts to improve logistics and distribution services. Therefore, value chains are optimized thereby realizing reduced food waste. The company is also highly impactful on the social side as it sources its produce from over 35,000 smallholder farmers that benefit from higher prices and improved yields. In addition to this, it provides employment to over 900 people. This is FMO’s first Agri Tech deal under the new Ventures Program, which focusses on Fintech, Off-Grid Energy, and Agri Tech. We look forward to supporting the company to become the largest and most impactful food logistics & distribution company of India.”

WayCool has stated that it intends to accelerate its path to profitability and will focus on maintaining as well as further improving its lean, capital efficient model.

WayCool has previously raised two rounds of funding from Aspada, LGT Impact Ventures, Caspian Impact Investment, and Northern Arc Capital Ltd.

Agritech Platform Safal Fasal Launched in India to Improve Farmer Livelihoods

In a bid to resolve farmer woes and create supply chain efficiency in agriculture, global fintech solution provider BPC has launched Safal Fasal (www.safalfasalonline.in), a digital platform that gives small and marginal farmers greater access to finance, technology, markets, and risk-management tools. The launch event in Lucknow witnessed on-boarding of nearly 30,000 farmers on the MarketPlace platform.

[caption id="attachment_139692" align="aligncenter" width="906"] Company officials lighting ceremonious lamp[/caption]

From solving farmer credit issues, to offering inventory management systems, financing agricultural equipment, know-how to reduce crop losses, and mapping quality storage facilities, Safal Fasal is aimed at directly impacting farmer income through technology. Leading Indian creditors, agritech companies, and relevant industry players have also partnered this initiative by BPC to tackle India’s farming problems. Some of the leading corporate who have on-boarded include ICICI Bank, Tanager International, Bayer, SURE, Sub-K,Kisan Saathi, Transity, India Health Link and GupShups. The launch event was attended by representatives of ACCION, NABARD, GIZ, Axis Bank, ICICI Lombard, Mfin India, Microsave, PWC, Samunnati, Greenlight etc.

Safal Fasal Launch in Lucknow- Debarshi Dutta, EVP Global Head Marketplace for BPC Banking Technologies, Safal Fasal, Anatoly Loginov, Chairman BPC Banking Technologies, S K Roy, Nabard, Dwarika Singh, ISED, Satyender Goel, India Health Link.

The Safal Fasal Marketplace connects buyers and sellers and improves the income of the farmer by enabling access to multiple buyers, multiple input companies at reduced prices, credit at affordable rates, financial services lifting them into the real economy and access to advisory services for a more efficient and sustainable crop productivity. Buyers benefit from access to a large and varied segment of credible and vetted farmers and their produce, ease of procurement and planning in a fragmented market, better logistics and tracing and therefore a better and more balanced price with reduced risk.

Speaking at the launch event, Anatoly Loginov, Chairman BPC Banking Technologies said, “Building ecosystems is not merely a passion, but a realistic and much needed development in the digitization of our economy. We can no longer achieve better performance through point to point solutions, but we must seek cooperation amongst parties and facilitate this at scale with digital technology. By doing so we can also make a contribution to large societal and economic dilemmas such as food provision, fair trade and access to society and a healthy financial life for all.”

This scalable digital innovation will empower farmers by connecting them with credible financial and business stakeholders in the value chain. Safal Fasal will look at fixing the broken Agri Value Chain by bridging the gaps between various stakeholders starting from farmers, FPOs, FPCs, input providers, produce-buyer financial institutions, insurance companies, logistics providers, shared equipment providers, knowledge partners, advisory services and other relevant value added-service providers.

“We are delighted that so many credible business partners have signed up to our initiative ranging from leading banks and agriculture providers up to local partners delivering kiosks for the local farmer in remote locations. Together we can build a broad digital ecosystem from India, which learnings can then be lifted into other sectors and regions of the world,” he added.

Discussing the company’s mission, Debarshi Dutta, Executive Vice President & Global Head Marketplace for BPC Banking Technologies, said, “We are focused on collaborating with the existing area specific stakeholders and bringing in technological interventions to help better and efficient delivery value chain, through proper transparency and traceability. This will help in taking the benefits to the last mile and increase the income of the farmers and other marketplace stakeholders by 15-20%. With the digital footprints, lending to farmers or MSME will be easier for the financial institutions and at a better price point. This will be a savings in itself.”

Mr. S K Roy, DGM, NABARD said in his keynote address, “There is a strong need of sustainable, smart and climate adopting technology to improve agriculture productivity. The initiatives like Safal Fasal will in bringing technology in the hands of farmers and increase their income."

“Nabard extends full support to BPC in this initiative and invites them to introduce the facility in more states,” Mr. Roy added.

As per statistics, Gross Value Added by Agriculture sector (agriculture, forestry and fishing) in the Indian economy is estimated at INR 17.7 lakh crores (approx. US$ 274 billion) for the financial year 2017-18. Agriculture accounts for a substantial part of GDP (16%) and employment (49%). Moreover, 86% of India’s farmers are small and marginal as per Agriculture census 2015-16.

(agcensus.nic.in/document/agcen1516/T1_ac_2015_16.pdf )The company’s focus is to bring a positive impact in the agriculture sector using technology intervention keeping the small and marginal farmers at the centre.

About Safal Fasal

Safal Fasal is an agri business marketplace aimed at empowering the entire food value chain ecosystem. Its objective is to enable the right market linkages between farmers, input providers, farm equipment companies, banks and financial institutions including insurance companies, knowledge & advisory services and value added product & service providers. Safal Fasal will allow the digital linkages to credit providers for greater economic benefit for farmers on a day to day basis.

For more information, please visit www.safalfasalonline.in.

About BPC MarketPlace

BPC MarketPlace was founded 20 years ago, and as true ‘globetrotters in fintech’ it is now active in 82 countries. Its 600 employees deploy services and technology for over 220 clients in 82 countries. The company powers payments across the globe by supplying software to banks, processors, merchants and other ecosystem players, such as governments and transportation providers. True to its mission of ‘bridging real life to digital’ it has a strong focus on creating ecosystems around smart rural and city initiatives to advance financial inclusion and streamline the buy and sell processes for all stakeholders involved.

~ Newsvoir

 

Pune-based Agritech Startup Ecozen Raises $6 Mn in Funding led by IFA Fund

Pune-based Agritech startup Ecozen, which develops technology-enabled products to strengthen the farm-to-fork value chain of perishables, announced today that it has completed its $6M Series A fundraise, after receiving investment from Sathguru Catalyser’s Innovation in Food & Agriculture Fund (IFA Fund). This funding is on top of the investment received in July 2019 from Caspian and the Hivos-Triodos Fund. Omnivore, which originally invested in Ecozen in 2015, also participated in this round.

Ecozen’s products help farmers who grow perishables to increase their yields, store their produce longer, and realize higher prices.

Ecozen’s three core products include:

• Ecofrost - solar powered, portable cold room based on thermal energy storage that enables on-farm cooling and storage of perishable produce immediately after harvest


• Ecotron - smart controller for irrigation pumps


• Eco-Connect - platform that connects farmers growing perishables with organized buyers

Ecofrost helps farmers growing fruits, vegetables, and flowers to radically increase the shelf life of their produce, allowing them to target farther markets and increase their profitability. Ecofrost cold rooms can be leased or purchased upfront and run on solar or grid power. The company also recently launched Ecofrost Link, a modular and more technologically advanced version of Ecofrost, which converts any insulated room into a solar powered cold room. Ecofrost Link is already seeing traction among agri value chain players in India and Africa who want deployments in their pack-houses and distribution centers to keep perishable produce fresh.

[gallery type="slideshow" link="none" size="large" ids="139335,139334,139337"]

Ecotron is a leading solar pump solution in India, embedding IoT & efficient motor technology to provide the most efficient irrigation solution for farmers along with remote monitoring, diagnostics, and predictive analytics. Ecotron has demonstrated clear competitive edge in its existing markets by retaining a major market share nationally.

Eco-Connect is a market linkage platform for farmers growing perishables, connecting them digitally to potential buyers, including exporters, retailers, and processors. Eco-Connect is unique as a marketplace because of its cold chain integration. Just recently
launched, Eco-Connect has already grown to 200 buyers and 75 active sellers on the platform and is expended to scale exponentially in the coming year.

Based in Pune, Ecozen was founded by three IIT Kharagpur alumni, Devendra Gupta, Prateek Singhal and Vivek Pandey, while they were still completing their studies. Approximately 25,000 farmers in India use Ecozen products. Through its innovative “Lease-a-Cold-Room” model, Ecozen is looking at providing cold chain access to farmers across India growing perishable commodities. The company is also on track to double its Ecotron business. A Krishna Kumar, ex-MD of State Bank of India, will be joining Ecozen’s board as the company embarks on its next phase of growth.

Commenting on the completion of the Series A round, Devendra Gupta, Co-Founder & CEO of Ecozen, said, “We are thrilled to partner with the IFA Fund. The funding raised will enable us to expand our product range, production capacity, and enter new geographies. We will also increase the deployment of our leasing based cold chain solution and scale up Eco-Connect massively.”

Commenting on the their investment, Mr. Vijayaraghavan Kannan, Senior Partner at IFA Fund said “Ecozen has focused on using technology as a differentiator and has pioneered innovative products addressing market imperfections and catering to underserved segments of agriculture & food value chain. Businesses with positive environmental externalities and livelihood impacts fit well with IFA’s investment philosophy.”

Ravi Narasimham, Investment Director at Caspian, said, "We have been quite impressed with Ecozen's progress since we invested, we believe this round of funding will help Ecozen realize its potential by furthering its business strategy across new geographies by launching its innovative product range.”

Tata Trust’s CInI Scales Up Partnership With CropIn To Impact 40,000 Tribal Households in Jharkhand

The Collectives for Integrated Livelihood Initiatives (CInI), an Initiative of Tata Trusts, has scaled up its programme on Lakhpati Kisan with technology integration in partnership with agri-tech pioneer CropIn to improve the livelihoods of 40,000+ tribal households across its focused states in Central Indian Tribal Belt. The partnership was announced at an event conducted by CInI in Ranchi. This partnership comes as part of CInI’s ‘Mission 2020: Lakhpati Kisan – Smart Villages’ program, which aims to bring over 1 lakh households out of poverty by improving their livelihood and overall quality of life  in an irreversible and sustainable manner.

Nearly 85% of India’s agricultural sector comprises of small and marginal farmers, most of whom face challenges such as high production costs, low access to credit, and poor market linkages. Community Institutions such as Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) are a great way for these farmers to come together to overcome these issues and have economies of scale. FPOs provide a great opportunity for diverting a part of development funds into implementing technology projects for small and marginal farmers to meet their aspirations in the agriculture sector. 

The partnership with CInI is being implemented through community institutions that are led entirely by women farmers. These tribal women farmers are responsible for timely and effective monitoring of the farmlands along with providing regular guidance to the farmers. The program not only looks at poverty alleviation but also focuses strongly on women empowerment. 

The CInI’s program has witnessed great success since its launch in 2015 and has impacted the lives of over 100,000 households, bringing them in the ambit of institutional structures for driving change. They now want to strengthen their impact and efficacy by leveraging the advanced technologies in the field of agriculture to address the specific constraints faced by the tribal population in the region. CInI also believes in the merits of livestock development for which they are looking to initiate better animal husbandry practices. For taking the program to the next level with the help of a cutting-edge technology solution, CropIn will play an important role in achieving CInI’s vision of changing human lives for the better. 

The partnership announcement event held in Ranchi witnessed a community interaction that focused on the "Role of technology in enhancing smallholder farmers’ income”.

The gathering was attended by invitees from various like-minded organizations. Speaking on the occasion, Ganesh Neelam, Executive Director of CInI said, “Achieving aspirations of tribal communities through the focused Lakhpati Kisan programme has been the focus at CInI. For us, innovative technologies and approaches are core for achieving the outcomes of these communities. The partnership with a well-known technology partner such as CropIn is very unique and important for us to meet the audacious goals of our programme. We proactively look for this partnership to be taken at scale for larger benefits of small and marginal farmers.

The first phase of this partnership started in 2018, during which CInI leveraged CropIn’s SmartFarm to improve the livelihood of 4,300+ farmers across the Gorabanda and Dhalbhumgarh regions in Jharkhand. Looking at the outcomes and impact generated by this pilot, CropIn and CInI have decided to set a bigger goal of scaling up to reach more than 40,000 households. 

SmartFarm uses cutting-edge technologies like real-time satellite-based plot monitoring to intervene at every stage of the crop lifecycle. The solution helps build accurate farmer and produce profiles through proper channelization and digitization of data. It also actively engages farmers by sending them farm best practices advisories — not only for agriculture but also for livestock like pigs and goats. SmartFarm also helps monitor the field team that consists exclusively of women tribal farmers. The field staff engage with the farmers on a day-to-day basis and gather critical farm data using SmartFarm’s easy-to-use modules. SmartFarm helps conduct yield analysis, allowing CInI to measure the impact of the interventions and improve outcomes going forward.

"Through our partnership with CInI, we aim to promote technology in the larger space especially in the tribal areas. Additionally, we are also providing our solution for the livestock sector. The uniqueness of this program is that it is managed by women-led FPOs thereby emphasizing our focus on women empowerment. We are incredibly excited about this partnership and look forward to creating a positive impact in the lives of farmers." Jitesh Shah, CRO of CropIn Technology added.

About Collectives for Integrated Livelihood Initiatives (CInI)

Collectives for Integrated Livelihood Initiatives (CInI) is a nodal agency of the Tata Trusts, working on transforming the lives of tribal households in the Central India tribal belt. The organization works with various civil society organizations, agriculture and other knowledge institutions, state agencies to establish sustainable development models for tribal communities. 

In 2015, CInI launched a highly ambitious “Lakhpati Kisan – Smart Villages” program to work with over 100,000 families and make them lakhpati irreversibly and sustainably through agriculture and allied livelihood prototypes embedded with technology innovations led by community institutions and micro enterprises.

About CropIn

CropIn is a leading AI and Data-led agri-tech​ organization that provides SaaS solutions to agribusinesses globally. CropIn’s unique suite of products enables various stakeholders in the agri-ecosystem to adopt and drive digital strategy across their operations. 

Using cutting-edge technology like big data analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and remote sensing, CropIn creates an interconnected network of all these stakeholders at different levels of the agriculture ecosystem, enabling clients to analyze and interpret data to derive real-time actionable insights on standing crop. Businesses can thus leverage technology to effectively drive their initiatives around Digitization, Predictability, Compliance, Sustainability and Traceability. 

With the vision to ‘maximize per acre value’ and the mission to ‘make every farm traceable’, CropIn adds value to agri-businesses by increasing efficiency, scaling productivity, and strengthening sustainability across the board. Thus far, CropIn has digitized over 5.5 million acres of farmland and enriched the lives of nearly 2.1 million farmers, while gathering data on 380+ crops and 3,600+ crop varieties in 46+ countries across 6 continents.

Amravati District Admin and CropLife India Raises Awareness in Medical Fraternity of Amravati Maharashtra

CropLife India, an association of 18 R&D driven crop science companies, in collaboration with Amravati District Administration, today organized a Continuing Medical Education (CME) Program for the Doctors. The Program aimed at diseminating the information to the doctors and reorienting them on “Recognition, Management and Treatment of Pesticide exposed patients”, ensuring medical practitioners are equipped to treat patients affected by pesticide poisoning.  

Dr. Debabrata Kanungo addressing the doctors in Amravati, Maharashtra

The reorientation workshop session led by Dr. Debabrata Kanungo, was attended by around 150 doctors from government and private hospitals in and around Amravati, Maharashtra. The workshop was part of CropLife India’s Stewardship program, which intends to guide the doctors to deal with accidental poisoning incidents occurred during improper or unsafe application of agro-chemicals.

Addressing the medical professionals, Dr. Debabrata Kanungo, a WHO expert , Chairman, Scientific Panel on Pesticide Residues and Antibiotics, Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), and Former Additional Director General, Ministry of Health & Farmers Welfare, Government of India; said, “CropLife India has a long history of creating awareness and building capacity on sustainable practices to farmers through its Stewardship programs.It also is making a continuous effort through such programmes to reorient the doctors regarding the novel technologies of handling and managing poisoning case due to mishandling of pesticides. This Program in Amravati is an extension to their existing curriculum to support the farmer’s community and help doctors in dealing with the basic treatment for pesticide poisoning.”

Shri Shelesh Nawal, IAS, District Collector, Amravati said, “Partnership of Government and industry will provide the requisite knowledge transfer to the farmers with the help from the medical fraternity. Awareness generation amongst the Doctors will surely lead to timely intervention and management of farmers in case of any accidental exposure to pesticides. Our Government is committed towards the growth of agriculture and such education of the medical fraternity will aid the process.”

Mr. Vijay Thumake, Chief Executive Officer, Zila Parishad, Amravati, shared, “Awareness and preparedness will support all during the time of crisis. Our Government’s pledge towards the Doubling of Farmer’s Income through safe and judicious use of farm inputs will be supported by this unique initiative of training the medical fraternity.”

Asitava Sen, Chief Executive officer, CropLife India; added, “CropLife India members are committed towards promoting the safe and responsible use of crop protection products through Industry stewardship initiatives. It is widely understood that safe use of crop protection products helps safeguarding farmer’s health and encourages sustainable agriculture.”

Mr. Sen added, “CropLife India has developed a digital edition for Health Practitioners' Handbook and hosted it on our website. Medical Practioners are requested to visit the CropLife India website croplifeindia.org and click on the ‘Doctors' Manual’ tab on top right corner.”

The programme focused on reorienting the  doctors on Principles of Recognition, Management and treatment of Pesticide poisoning, general principles on stabilization of a poisoned patient and dealing with basic treatment of other poisoning cases.

Present at the event were Shri Vijay Chawale, District Superintendent of Agriculture, Dr. Shamsundar Nikam, Civil Surgeon, Amravati, other Government officials and delegates from our member companies and industry.
 
About CropLife India                          

CropLife India is committed to advancing sustainable agriculture and it is an association of 16 R&D driven member companies in crop protection. We jointly represent ~ 70% of the market and are responsible for 95% of the molecules introduced in the country. Our member companies have annual global R&D spend of 6 billion USD and are firmly committed to engaging with the farming community to enable Safe, Secure Food Supply.
 

Cisco to bring Benefits of IoT & Data Science to Kerala Farming Communities

Global computer networking giant Cisco has signed an MoU with the Kerala State IT Mission (KSITM) to bring the benefits of digital technology including Internet of Things (IoT) and data science to farming communities in Kerala, as part of its Country Digitization Acceleration (CDA) programme.

The first phase of this initiative will be rolled out in 15 panchayats across Kannur district.

As per the the MOU, Cisco will build an Agri-Digital Infrastructure (ADI) Platform and set up Village Knowledge Centres (VKCs) for knowledge delivery and provide access to e-learning and advisory services to the farming and fishing communities in Kannur.

The ADI Platform will provide access to a datastore with complete farming data of paddy and prawns farms in the region along with land and farmer profile databases.

This datastore will run Cisco's robust analytics and computer engines to extract insights on crop yields, weather patterns, plant disease patterns, soil quality, moisture content, forecasting and other data, and make it available to farmers and government officials through the VKCs.

This Cisco ADI Platform, which will eventually become a centralised knowledge hub, will provide data-based recommendations and insights to improve agriculture planning, reduce the risk of crop mortality and overall operational costs.

To provide a a custom-built Smart Agricultural Platform to Kerala farmers, the ADI Platform will utilize IoT sensors, Non-IoT databases, and satellite/UAV images to gather and relay real-time intelligence on soil content, moisture, weather conditions and other parameters.

The Village Knowledge Centres (VKCs) will allow farmers to access essential information on government policy updates, crop advisory services, market trends, rates and best practice videos. Farmers will also gain accessibility to government-provisioned financing on a Content Management System through a mobile application and web portal.

Cisco’s Harish Krishnan said the impact of technology can be transformational for those who need it most, elevating standards of living and foster economic development.

M Sivasankar, IT Principal Secretary, said the government's vision is to turn the state into a knowledge society with sustainable economic growth, technological advancements and better quality of life for all.

To recall, in 2016 Cisco had signed an MoU with Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT), and iCreate, to establish an Internet of Things (IoT) Innovation hub in order to accelerate digital transformation progress in the state of Gujarat.

Source - Mathrubhumi