FarMart Opens Its Own ERP Tech to All Food Businesses: Launches Saudabook

FarMart, India’s fastest-growing intelligent food supply network, is proud to announce the launch of its tech platform, Saudabook. In a bold step towards the modernization of the country’s food sector, FarMart is opening its own ERP (FarMartOS) to all food processors and manufacturers in India. Saudabook is India’s first and only technology solution that caters specifically to the food processing and manufacturing sector.

India's food manufacturing sector has faced persistent challenges such as limited automation, complex supply chains, and distribution issues. With over 3 million food processing businesses, many of which are multi-generational family-owned enterprises, this sector contributes significantly to a $500 billion market. Despite the industry's growth driven by rising domestic consumption and expanding export opportunities, there has been limited tech adoption and automation.

FarMart's Saudabook aims to transform this scenario by offering its easy-to-use platform, facilitating the digitization of the entire workflow for food processors. By adopting intelligent procurement processes through Saudabook, businesses can achieve enhanced quality and delivery controls, enabling them to keep pace with the dynamic industry demands.

As an industry leader, FarMart has built data and commerce products to establish a direct farm-to-business supply chain of high-quality and verified agri-produce. It boasts a robust network of 3.2 million farmers, 250,000 village-level aggregators who sell produce on the platform, and 2000+ processors and large food businesses that purchase from the platform. With Saudabook these linkages between India’s food manufacturing industry and India’s farming communities become even stronger.

On this launch, Alekh Sanghera, Co-founder and CEO, FarMart said “With SaudaBook, we envision an inclusive and prosperous food economy, where every stakeholder benefits from technological advancements. We firmly believe that digitization holds the key to doubling the food and agriculture contribution to our economy, elevating farmer incomes, and ensuring the world's access to safe and nutritious food.”

Dharmendra Jain, President, UP Roller Flour Millers Association said "The food processing industry is presently highly fragmented and is gradually moving towards digital adoption. I am eagerly looking forward to Saudabook, as this technology has the potential to unlock immense value and make our industry more globally competitive. Given FarMart's impressive track record in establishing a pan-India sourcing network, Saudabook will undoubtedly elevate their commitment to Make in India to new heights."

About FarMart:

FarMart is an intelligent food supply network connecting farming communities to food businesses globally. We build digital products & commerce solutions that modernize food value chains. Our mission is to make them more resilient, reliable and rewarding for humanity; at FarMart, we are building The Good Food Economy. In 2022, FarMart was recognized by Deloitte and ranked #1 as the fastest-growing tech company in India. FarMart is proud to have partnered with and backed by renowned VCs like General Catalyst, Matrix Partners, Omidyar Network and Avaana Capital that invest in leading tech companies that are sustainable and purposeful.

For more information please visit: www.farmart.co

Agriculture Machinery Renting Platform farMart Raises Funding from Indian Angel Network

Indian Angel Network (IAN), world’s largest business angel group, has made an undisclosed investment in Gurugram-based farMart, an agriculture machinery renting platform for the farmers and by the farmers. The investment was led by Ambarish Raghuvanshi on behalf of IAN and he has also joined the board of the company.

Agriculture plays a vital role in India's economy. Over 58 per cent of the rural households depend on agriculture as their principal means of livelihood. Agriculture, along with fisheries and forestry, is one of the largest contributors to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).Despite the tech revolution in the country, there has been no path breaking tech development in the agriculture sector. The farmers understand that hiring machinery is more economical and time saving than hiring labour.

80% of farmers in India own less than <1 hectare of land. Such small landholding makes owning an agri-machinery an unviable option for most of the farmers. On the other hand, the exiting rental market is highly unorganized due information asymmetry, no standard pricing and service and social barriers. To solve this problem, Alekh Sanghera, Mehtab Singh Hans and Lokesh Singh got together and founded farMart with a vision organize the renting market with the help of technology.

farMart is a tech enabled platform that helps farmers and local entrepreneurs rent out their under-utilized agricultural machinery to fellow small and marginal farmers in need on pay-per-use basis via mobile app and call center. The company was founded in 2016 and has been successful in enabling more that 350 farmers and entrepreneurs.

Speaking on the announcement, Alekh Sanghera, co-founder and CEO said “All the founders come from agricultural background, and are passionate to herald the tech era in agriculture which has been elusive till now. There are around 120 million agricultural households in India, and many of them still without access to finance, machinery and modern technology. We have been working with the farmers to provide them access to modern agricultural machines in order to enhance their productivity and lower their cost of production. At the same time, we are able raise the (often-low) capacity utilisation rate of agri-machines resulting in an alternative source of income for machinery owners thus promoting entrepreneurship in the rural community. The funding by IAN will help us grow at faster pace and develop a stronger product. We are excited to have Ambarish Raghuvanshi and other investors as our mentor and looking forward to his support and guidance to grow our business.”

Ambarish Raghuvanshi, the IAN lead investor, commented on the investment saying, “So far, Indian agriculture sector has not received much focus in the digital revolution of the country. The size of India’s agricultural renting sector is over $ 5 billion per annum and it was waiting for the tech disruption to make it more organised. Rural sector holds immense potential, with Increasing mobile penetration and government pushing digital payments, it is the perfect time for company like farMart. Alekh and the core team have profound understanding and expertise of the sector. The team has great energy and has developed a revolutionary product which holds the potential to disrupt the agriculture industry and make a huge social impact. I am really excited to join farMart board to help them scale and be a part of next agriculture revolution of the country.”

farMart is currently operational in one district and will be expanding to more than 20+ districts in Uttar Pradesh, Uttrakhand, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh. The company is working with 2 Harvard PhD economists to conduct impact evaluation studies of farMart’s impact on farmer’s agri-input use, productivity and incomes.