Agritech Startup and Farmer First eMarketplace GrowiT India Raised INR 50 Lakhs in Debt Funding in Shark Tank India

GrowiT India - An Agritech Startup and Farmer First Emarketplace raised 50 Lakhs in Debt funding from Sharks Peeyush Bansal and Namita Thapar.

GrowiT will utilize these funds to strengthen its franchises, vendor outreach and help farmers become financially independent. The network and support of the sharks and the platform itself will boost more visibility and mileage for the brand.

Founded in 2020, by Saurabh Agarwal and Akshay Agarwal, GROWIT India, is the agricultural arm of Surat-based Alpha Plastomers Private Limited and aims to manufacture advanced and innovative products that ensure optimum quality and yield for the Indian Agricultural & Farming Industry while lowering its carbon footprint.

"This is an incredible milestone for us, and we are incredibly grateful for the support and confidence shown by our investors (Sharks). With this funding, we can continue to develop and scale our technology, which has the potential to transform the way we approach agriculture and food production. We're excited to take this next step in our journey and to make a positive impact on the industry and the world. Thank you to everyone who has supported us on this journey, and we can't wait to see what the future holds!", said Saurabh Agarwal - Founder & CEO- GrowiT India.

Critical solutions like quality food, climate smart agriculture, farmer empowerment and enhancing farmer productivity are major focus areas for GrowiT.

Agritech Startup Fasal Wins Patent for Fasal Kranti, a Solar-powered IoT Device for Precision Farming

Fasal, India’s earliest full-stack agri-tech solutions company, today announced that it has won a patent for its innovative solar-powered IoT device for precision farming — Fasal Kranti. The patent, granted by the Indian Patent Office, recognizes Fasal Kranti for its innovation, novelty and application. 

With this, Fasal becomes the first company in India to offer a patented precision farming device for horticulture farmers.

The plug-and-play Internet of Things (IoT) device, Fasal Kranti, which runs on solar and battery power, is installed in horticulture farms (fruits, vegetables, flowers, etc). Through its sensors, it measures various farm level macroclimatic, microclimate conditions along with rainfall, soil moisture, soil temperature, wind direction, leaf wetness, etc. The data collected from the hardware device is processed into actionable advisories for farmers using agronomic models, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML). Horticulture farmers are then alerted on these farm-specific advisories via an app on their mobile phones — lending them a comprehensive picture of their farms.

Fasal Kranti IoT Device

Fasal Kranti provides disease and pest control preventive assistance by alerting farmers on which treatment to use and when to use it. Its irrigation advisory helps save water, allowing farmers to provide their farms with the right amount of water required at the right time. 

By equipping farmers with crop intelligence, Fasal has impacted 50,000 plus acres of farm land across the country mitigate production risks and achieve higher yields and profitability. 

Since its inception in 2018, Fasal’s real-time insights have helped farmers collectively save 10 billion litres of water (about 30-50% lower irrigation water use), achieve upto 15-30% reduction in pesticide costs and about 15-30% rise in yield — thereby empowering farmers to achieve predictable incomes. Through Fasal, farmers have been able to achieve upto 40% increase in their incomes.

Shailendra Tiwari & Ananda Verma - Fasal Founders

Commenting on the patent win, Ananda Verma, the Founder and CEO of Fasal, said, “The grant of patent for Fasal Kranti, which has been in development by our team since March 2019, is a testament to Fasal’s commitment to innovation and supporting farmers with actionable farm-level advisories. For generations together, farmers have relied upon guesswork in farming — leading to unpredictable yields and incomes. Fasal Kranti’s tech-backed insights eliminate the unpredictability to bring higher yields and predictable incomes. We are driven to take Fasal Kranti globally to many more farmers and look forward to helping them grow more and better."

Fasal Kranti has also won the IMARK 2021 award by India Design Mark. The company has also won the Next Gen Product of the Year 2021 award by NASSCOM.

More About Fasal

Fasal is India’s earliest full-stack agritech solutions company. It helps horticulturists reduce the cost of cultivation and increases quality and yield through its AI-powered patented IoT device, Fasal Kranti, that delivers farm-level actionable advisories. Through precision farming, Fasal aims to remove guesswork out of farming and empower horticulture farmers with predictable incomes. 

The company propagates sustainable horticulture practices and solutions that impact the social, economic, and environmental facets, thereby making a big impact on the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. Started in 2018 by Ananda Verma and Shailendra Tiwari, the company is on a mission to drive a horticulture-led farming revolution globally.

Renewable Energy Products Marketplace for Farmers 'AgriVijay' Raises Funds under Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS)

Pune-based AgriVijay, an omnichannel marketplace of renewable energy products for farmers & rural households, has raised seed funding from Indigram Labs under Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS), reported ANI.

AgriVijay provide its offerings to farmers and rural population via both online and offline mediums that include an e-commerce website, mobile app (under development), field-teams, call center and village-level franchisee model known as 'AgriVijay Renewable Energy Stores', a one stop store of renewable energy products as well as 'Energy Advisory' to sell its products to farmers and rural households.

Founded in 2020, by Mother-Son duo -- Shobha Chanchlani & Vimal Panjwani, the agritech startup is currently operational in the states of Maharashtra and Rajasthan.

AgriVijay products offerings include bio-gas and solar energy -based products such as solar water pumps, biogas, solar inverter and biogas power gensets and other farm equipments.

The startup has been incubated by CCS-NIAM Agribusiness Incubator under the RKVY-RAFTAAR programme by Ministry of Agriculture, government of India and DST-supported Indigramlabs Foundation.

AgriVijay has recently partnered with Samunnati, which offers customized financial solutions to stakeholders across the agri value chain,  to provide India's first 0% interest-free EM/ finance facility to all the small rural businesses & farmers of India on all renewable energy products with an initiative of making India energy independent.

Agri-Tech Startup Aqgromalin Secure Seed Funding Led by Zephyr Peacock

Mr. Prasanna and Mr. Bharani

Aqgromalin, a tech-driven farm diversification platform enabling farmers to diversify into animal husbandry and aquaculture, has raised INR 5.5 crore in seed funding led by Zephyr Peacock India Growth fund, a provider of growth capital to start-ups in India. The round also includes participation from IndigramLabs Foundation, and other noted angels from the agri start-up ecosystem.

The value chain for livestock farming activities in India is fragmented and lacks transparency. The activities include poultry farming, cattle farming, aquaculture, insect farming etc. Indian livestock farmers face challenges in procurement of inputs and sale of output produce, resulting in unpredictable incomes. Aqgromalin is pioneering the delivery of tech-enabled services to this sector. The company provides tech-driven solutions to farmers to help augment their farm income by organizing supply of input and marketing output.

Commenting on the ground challenges, Mr. Prasanna Manogaran, Co-founder and CEO, Aqgromalin, said, “Animal husbandry and aquaculture sector in India is underserved and highly fragmented. Livestock farmers face various issues including limited availability of quality inputs, lack of quality feed, and lack of access to markets at Aqgromalin, we are building a one-stop end-to-end solutions platform to help farmers overcome these issues.”

Aqgromalin plans to use the funds raised from Zephyr Peacock for team expansion, technology development, category addition and geographical expansion.

Mr.Pankaj Raina, Managing Director, Zephyr Peacock said, “The livestock industry plays a critical role in the Indian economy. It contributes over 4% of the GDP and provides employment to millions of Indians. However, the industry is highly unorganized and farmer income is low. Aqgromalin is deploying technology that would help address the pain points across the livestock value chain and improve access of inputs and markets for the ecosystem. We are excited to partner with the founders and the management to bring about a tech revolution in the livestock industry.”

Mr.Bharani C.L., Co-founder and COO, Aqgromalin said, “Our mission is to democratise access of live inputs to our farmers especially small landholders, thereby enabling them to diversify into animal husbandry and aquaculture at ease. In the next few years we plan to build the sourcing and supply infrastructure to deliver a wide variety of live inputs at the farmgate. We are glad to have Zephyr Peacock as a partner on this journey. ”

Aqgromalin is the first company in India to provide farmers with live input material delivered at the farmgate for animal husbandry and aquaculture. The agri-tech company is organizing the protein value chain and helping farmers improve their incomes by enabling them to diversify.

Aqgromalin deploys technology to enhance reach and engagement through its mobile and web platforms for customers. Aqgromalin is working on an IOT monitoring solutions for animal husbandry & aquaculture with AI deep learning inference. It is also building a blockchain based traceability platform for animal husbandry and aquaculture produce. Headquartered in Chennai, the company has currently reached over 40,000 livestock farmers across Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Assam, West Bengal, Orissa and Kerala. The company plans to reach over 1,00,000 farmers by the end of 2021.

About Aqgromalin:

Aqgromalin is one of the fastest-growing farm diversification companies that aims to supplement the income of small landholding farmers through ready to implement micro-farms. It makes access easier for various agricultural implements and technology. Incepted in 2019, the company is based in Tamil Nadu and has strong operations in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.