Fyllo and Orchardly Join Hands to Revolutionize Apple Farming in the Valley

Apple is commercially the most important temperate fruit and is fourth among the most widely produced fruits in the world after banana, orange and grape.

India's share in the total world apple production is merely 2.05 per cent. Only around 1.6% of the country's production gets exported.

India’s Apple industry worth is around 1.5 B USD and there is a huge untapped potential in terms of improving the quality and quantity of produce. Shifting to new varieties, high density cultivation method, adopting new irrigation methods and technology in decision making can be some of they way to increase the market share of Indian Apple and increasing farmers’ income too.

Orchardly has been working with over 10000 farmers helping them from high density orchards setup, agronomy, quality inputs to post harvest services. They have decades of experience of working with Apple farmers and been themselves growers.

With the mission statement “Let us make better orchards together,” Orchardly has offered agronomy solutions to the valley’s apple farmers, including spray advisories and comprehensive integrated nutrition management guidance through their mobile app.

Fyllo is a Bangalore based precision agriculture company and been working with 5000+ farmers in crops like Grapes, Pomegranate, Citrus, Banana etc. to help farmers take on farm decisions using real time farm data and agronomy models. The early prediction models covering each stage of the crops have been able to reduce the input cost by 30% and increase the per acre produce by over 25%. Fyllo has saved over 10 billion Litres of water.

The joint work includes providing smart IoT devices and precise growing advisory to apple farmers based on this data. Two companies also plan to extend hi-tech and full stack apple farming solutions to the growers.

“We import around USD 260 M worth of apple. While we export almost negligible amount. Our partnership with Orchardly is a strong step towards helping the Indian growers produce best quality apple and take the same to world. Orchardly’s deep understanding of the crop, agronomy services and strong supply chain hold will definitely help us achieve the goal.” said Sudhanshu Rai and Sumit, Directors at Fyllo.

Adding to this, Mr. Uzair, Director at Orchardly said, “World is moving towards sustainable farming and it is very important for us to reduce the use of pesticides and fertilizers. Use of precision agriculture in our orchards will help us to bring down the inputs atleast by 30% and thereby reducing the residue levels on our fruits and make them ready for international market. ”

Bengaluru-based Agri-Tech Startup Fyllo Raises ~$2 Mn Led by Triveni Trust, Ninjacart and IAN

Fyllo Co-founders Sumit (Left) and Sudhanshu Rai (Right)

• Fyllo helps farmers grow export quality crops through its data-driven platform that is powered by IoT, AI, and Agronomy
• The agri-tech startup has developed crop-specific models for irrigation, nutrients, diseases, pests, and weather management for each physiological stage
• Startup’s precise farming models bring consistency in produced quantity and quality across farms and geography

IAN, an existing investor, joined the US 2mn round in Fyllo, an agri-tech startup led by Triveni Trusts, Ninjacart and new investors Venture Catalysts, StarAgri, Kia Ora Ventures, Singualrity Ventures, Mastermind Capital and angel investors.

The startup will use the capital raised for its expansion to new markets and towards research and development to support more crops.

Founded in 2019, Fyllo brings certainty in quality and quantity of agricultural produce through its data-driven Agri-science platform. Their IoT system understands and measures precise requirements of plants on real-time basis and then Agri-science platform backed by AI provides timely advise to farmers. The startup has developed crop-specific models for irrigation, nutrients, diseases, pests, and weather management for each physiological stage of crop and soil.

Fyllo has expanded its services to 2000+ farmers and 10+ corporates across 4 states in India covering 20,000 acres.

Speaking on the latest development, founders of Fyllo, Sudhanshu Rai and Sumit said, “Farmers have seen the impact of technology and the adaptability has increased. Having received the funding, we are looking to invest in expanding our brand to new markets and more crops.”

Mr. M.K Dhanuka, Managing Trustee, Triveni Trust said, “Fyllo’s specific, precise and AI-driven advise to farmers helps them increase their crop productivity and lower input cost. 100% customer retention reflects the farmer’s confidence in Fyllo’s offering. This will contribute to transforming India through agriculture. We are excited about our investment in Fyllo.”

Fyllo has reduced the risks involved and brought consistency in farming. Along with reducing the cost of cultivation, the platform helped farmers increase the yield and income. On a cumulative basis, farmers have saved over 9 billion litres of water using Fyllo.

Ninjacart co-led this round and Mr. Thirukumaran Nagarajan, Co-founder & CEO , of Ninjacart said, "Fyllo provides actionable insights through a combination of technology, science and data. We look forward to working with Fyllo team to expand their distribution through Ninjacart’s farmer network across the country."

Padmaja Ruparel, co-founder of IAN said, “IAN invests in changemaker-startups like Fyllo — which have witnessed continuous business growth. The founders bring both passion and leadership and we are excited to be a part of the Fyllo journey."

Further adding Mr. Balvinder Singh Kalsi, Managing Director, KiaOra Ventures said, “Fyllo’s offering is a great example of bringing precision farming technology to Indian farmers. This is another step towards doubling farmers income. We are happy to be a part of Fyllo’s future journey.

Indian Angel Network is India’s first and world’s largest business angel network with close to 500 members across the world, comprising the who’s who of successful entrepreneurs and dynamic CEOs. With investors from 12 countries, IAN’s presence spans 7 locations, which includes cities in India and the UK. The network is sector agnostic and has funded start-ups across 19 sectors in India and 7 other countries growing global footprint companies. With an excellent track record, IAN has been giving excellent cash exits year-on-year to its investor members, for the last 12 years. Some of its marquee investee companies include Druva, Spinny, Box8, Uniphore, WOW Momos, Consure, Fareye, NOCCARC, Propelld, Skit.ai amongst many others.

IAN Fund, an INR 375 crore VC fund is a uniquely differentiated seed/early stage Fund that aims to transform India’s entrepreneurial landscape. The fund invests in innovative companies in sectors including healthcare and medical devices, VR, AI, software as a service, marketplaces, fin-tech, big data, artificial intelligence, agritech, and hardware. With this, IAN has created the single largest platform for seed and early-stage investing, enabling entrepreneurs to raise from INR 0.25 to 50 crores.

With this, IAN has created the single largest platform for seed and early-stage investing, enabling entrepreneurs to raise from Rs. 25 lakhs to Rs. 50 crores.

Bengaluru-based Agri-Tech Startup Fyllo Bags Rs. 3 Crores in Seed Round from IAN

Fyllo Founders Sudhanshu & Sumit

Fyllo helps farmers grow export quality crops through its data-driven platform that is powered by IoT, AI, and Agronomy

The agri-tech startup has developed crop-specific models for irrigation, nutrients, diseases, pests, and weather management for each physiological stage

Startup’s corporate/contract farming models bring consistency in produced quantity and quality across farms and geography

New Delhi, June 7th, 2021: Fyllo, an agri-tech startup has raised INR 3 crores from Indian Angel Network. Titan Capital, Lead Angels and others joined the round. The company has been previously funded by 100X.VC.

The startup will use the capital raised for its expansion to new markets and towards research and development to support more crops.

Coming from farmers’ families, co-founders of Fyllo, Sudhanshu and Sumit have been involved in agriculture since their childhood. The duo recognized the practical challenges that farmers face.

After considerable research, the founders identified that a data-driven decision support system to farmers will be very crucial in eliminating crop loss as well as reduce cost of production. This prompted the Computer Science graduates to establish Fyllo in 2019.

Fyllo Final Product

Fyllo helps farmers grow export quality crops through its data-driven platform that is powered by IoT, AI, and Agronomy. The startup has developed crop-specific models for irrigation, nutrients, diseases, pests, and weather management for each physiological stage. Besides, it also provides the best cultural practices at each stage of the crop.

Speaking on the latest development, Sudhanshu and Sumit said, “Farmers need to make many decisions in real-time, but lack data and intelligence to infer from. They use trial and error techniques to make decisions to grow crops. In fact, they spend 25% more money but the produce is 30% less. We not only provide the data but also actionable insights. We believe Fyllo will help farmers to improve production by 25% and the total cost of production will also reduce by $700. Plus, there will also be an improvement in export quality by up to 81%, thereby fetching double the price on increased export produce. Having received the funding from IAN, we are looking to invest in expanding our brand to new markets.”

Further adding, Padmaja Ruparel, Co-Founder at IAN said, “The market size for Precision agriculture in India is around $7 billion and growing 18% YoY. And with Fyllo’s crop models, farmers can reduce input cost and wastage, and increase crop quality and quantity. We were very excited by Fyllo’s next-gen agriculture innovation providing farmers a solution on their mobiles. We do believe that Sudhanshu and Sumit can build an impactful business catering to Indian and global farmer community”

Backed by a strong team, the Bengaluru-based startup’s corporate/contract farming models bring consistency in produced quantity and quality across farms and geography. The 360-degree view dashboards backed with real-time farm data help the management team to provide better decision-making ability to farmer.

About Indian Angel Network

Indian Angel Network is India’s first and world’s largest business angel network with close to 500 members across the world, comprising the who’s who of successful entrepreneurs and dynamic CEOs. With investors from 12 countries, IAN’s presence spans 7 locations, which includes cities in India and the UK. The network is sector agnostic and has funded start-ups across 17 sectors in India and 7 other countries growing global footprint companies. With an excellent track record, IAN has been giving excellent cash exits year-on-year to its investor-members, for the last 11 years. Some of its marquee investee companies include Druva, Box8, Sapience Analytics, WOW Momos, Consure, Fareye amongst many others.

IAN has also launched the IAN Fund, an INR 375 crore fund, is a uniquely differentiated seed/early stage Fund which aims to transform India’s entrepreneurial landscape. The fund invests in innovative companies in sectors including healthcare and medical devices, VR, AI, software as a service, marketplaces, fin-tech, big data, artificial intelligence, agritech, and hardware. With this, IAN has created the single largest platform for seed and early-stage investing, enabling entrepreneurs to raise from Rs. 25 lakhs to Rs. 50 crores.