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<ul><li>The government of India has decided to set up a dedicated fund for agritech startups.</li><li>The finance minister also mentioned that the government intends to pay ₹2.7 lakh crore worth of MSP.</li><li>Like other sectors, the finance ministry has also proposed to further incorporate drones into the agriculture sector.</li></ul>The government of India has decided to set up a dedicated fund for agritech startups, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said while announcing the union budget for the year 2022-23. “A fund with blended capital, raised under the co-investment model, will be facilitated through NABARD. This is to finance startups for agriculture &amp; rural enterprise, relevant for farm produce value chain. The activities for these startups will include, inter alia, support for FPOs, machinery for farmers on rental basis at farm level, and technology including IT-based support,” Sitharaman said. The finance minister also mentioned that the government intends to pay ₹2.7 lakh crore worth of minimum support price (MSP) direct payments to wheat and paddy farmers. Besides this, the government is also looking to deploy drones for agriculture monitoring, crop assessment, digitisation of land records and spraying of insect pesticides. The share price of Zen Technologies — a publicly listed company that works on drone detection, classification and tracking — <a href="https://stocktwits.com/Dhwani1105/message/432213049">spiked </a>after the Sitharaman made this announcement. <div type="image" title="Dhwani Agri post" msid="89278267" hostid="261"></div> While the company doesn’t have agricultural operations, the spike of its shares was related to the wider scope of drones. “Startups will be promoted to facilitate Drone Shakti through varied applications and for a drone as a service," Sitharaman added. “The budget has covered multiple avenues for the drone industry to rise, the focus on promoting Agricultural Drones and the NABARD fund to support startups will result in ensuring that the Drone Industry reaches a new milestone. The development of 100 new cargo terminals in the next 3 years will also add to the growth of Drones enabled for cargo deliveries within the terminals and terminals to delivery locations,” Swapnik Jakkampuddi, cofounder of Skye Air Mobility, said. SEE ALSO <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/economic-survey-2022-highlights-that-delhi-not-bengaluru-is-the-startup-capital-of-india/articleshow/89249128.cms">Delhi, not Bengaluru, is the startup capital of India, says Economic Survey</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/budget/news/indias-defence-budget-allocation-as-per-experts/slidelist/89250030.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">Allocation for India's defence may see a nominal increase</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/budget/news/the-government-is-expected-to-announce-1-3-lakh-crore-for-railways-under-the-national-infrastructure-pipeline/articleshow/89256692.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">The government is expected to announce ₹1.3 lakh crore for railways under the national infrastructure pipeline</a>

A fund for agritech startup, inclusion of drones to boost Indian farming

<ul><li><keyword id="366603" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Matrix-Partners-India">Matrix Partners India</keyword>, Ankur Capital, Better Capital and <keyword id="8830555" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="titan-capital">Titan Capital</keyword> also participated in the round.</li><li><keyword id="9611309" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="VeGrow">Vegrow</keyword> provides a technology platform to farmers, which can be used to get high quality farm inputs and best farming practices.</li><li>The <keyword id="3210932" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="B2B-startup">B2B startup</keyword> is looking to expand to 100 cities, invest in technology and launch new products.</li></ul>Business-to-business (B2B) agritech startup for sourcing fruits and vegetables, Vegrow, has raised $13 million in a Series A round co-led by <keyword id="455799" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Lightspeed-Venture-Partners">Lightspeed Venture Partners</keyword> and Elevation Capital. Existing investors Matrix Partners India, Ankur Capital, Better Capital and Titan Capital also participated in the round. The company had raised $2.5 million in a seed round in June 2020. Vegrow was founded in April 2020 by Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) alumni Praneeth Kumar, Shobhit Jain, Mrudhukar Batchu and Kiran <keyword id="50744" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Naik">Naik</keyword>, who have varying experience in the agri sector. Kumar and Jain started their career at fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) giant ITC’s agribusiness division, whereas Batchu and Naik were directly involved in farming. The company works with small-hold farmers on a profit sharing model and offers assistance across various stages of the farming cycle using technology. Vegrow provides a technology platform to farmers, which can be used to get high quality farm inputs and best farming practices. The platform also enables farmers to sell their harvest to the right buyers for the right price. The B2B startup claims to help farmers in getting higher returns, reducing supply-chain wastage and improving procurement for wholesalers. The company’s founders have emphasised that the new funding will help Vegrow to expand to 100 new cities, invest in technology and launch new products. The company claims to be one of the largest companies for pomegranates in the country in less than a year. Meanwhile, Lightspeed’s partner Vaibhav Agrawal said that companies building a tech-enabled marketplace between farmers and buyers could help eliminate inefficiencies and would have large market opportunities eventually. “Additionally, many marketplaces have scaled up on negative unit margins in this category, so we were really impressed by the growth and positive unit margin Vegrow has demonstrated using its technology-oriented approach to standardise quality, minimise inventory and retain farmers,” Agrawal added. Apart from Vegrow, other companies in India’s agritech space include Ninjakart, AgNext, Samunnati, Dehaat, Farmart, and WayCool. SEE ALSO <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/swiggy-raises-1-25-billion-in-a-mega-round-of-funding-led-by-softbank-and-prosus/articleshow/84578974.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink">Swiggy gets a $1.25 billion cheque from Softbank for the same reason Zomato went for an IPO</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/globalbees-has-raised-150-million-in-few-months-of-launch-to-acquire-more-businesses/articleshow/84552291.cms">GlobalBees, a Thrasio-style startup launched by FirstCry and Edelweiss execs, raises $150 million in few months of launch</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/how-to-find-out-if-your-phone-is-infected-by-the-pegasus-spyware/articleshow/84578193.cms">This toolkit will tell you if your phone is infected by the Pegasus spyware</a>

Agritech startup Vegrow raises $13 million Lightspeed, Elevation

New Delhi, June 3 (IANS) Microsoft on Wednesday launched a new programme to help agritech startups in India build industry-specific solutions, scale and grow with access to deep technology, business and marketing resources. The three-tier programme offers tech and business enablement resources to Series C startups that can boost their businesses with Azure benefits (including free credits), unlimited technical support and help with Azure Marketplace onboarding, the company said in a statement. "The Microsoft for Agritech Startups programme is among the early steps in our journey towards empowering these startups in India and transforming global agricultural practices," said Sangeeta Bavi, Director, Startup Ecosystem, Microsoft India. Startups with enterprise-ready solutions can scale quickly with joint go-to-market strategies, technical support and new sales opportunities with Microsoft's partner ecosystem. Lastly, agritech startups that are looking to create digital agriculture solutions have the opportunity to co-build customized solutions with Azure FarmBeats without investing in deep data engineering resources. Available on the Azure Marketplace, Azure FarmBeats enables aggregation of agricultural datasets across providers and generation of actionable insights by building artificial intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) models based on fused datasets. Using Azure FarmBeats, startups can acquire, aggregate and process agricultural data and rapidly develop their own AI/ML models, said Microsoft. Growing at the rate of 25 per cent year-on-year, the country currently hosts more than 450 startups in the agritech sector, according to a recent Nasscom report. Agritech startups in the country received more than $248 million funding in the first half of 2019, a growth of 300 per cent as compared to the same period in the previous year. "Sustainable agricultural technology can transform the global food landscape. Agritech startup innovations are addressing some of our key challenges connected to agriculture and food production," said Bavi. Bringing together startups, corporates, industry bodies, governments and venture capital firms, the programme aims to create a shared platform for learning and innovation, said Microsoft. --IANS na/

New Microsoft programme to empower agritech startups in India

New Delhi, May 18 () Agritech startup Eggoz, which is into the business of egg production, has raised Rs 2.5 crore from investors to fund its expansion plans. Founded in December 2017, the startup is a full-stack egg producer of nutrition-rich eggs. It operates a network of poultry farms in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. Eggoz has raised Rs 2.5 crore as part of its seed funding. It had earlier secured Rs 1.2 crore from a clutch of angel investors. The seed funding round saw participation of investors like Tracxn Labs, Angellist, Tri-Deep Capital, founders of Letstransport, and angel investors along with existing investors - Narendra Sankar, Sunil Mishra, and Vishal Sharma, the company said. Eggoz has so far sold over two crore eggs and has more than 1,00,000 birds under management. It has developed a new farming model for small-scale commercial egg farming. With Eggoz's technology and integration platform, farmers can rear flock sizes starting from 500 birds at affordable initial investment and less land requirement," said Uttam Kumar, founder of the company. With these efforts, Eggoz poultry farming is one of the most profitable and stable businesses to generate allied income for many marginal farmers as well as to fulfill protein-enriched food requirement of the growing population, Kumar added. Eggoz works with farmers at several locations in north India, using nutritional engineering and technology. Abhishek Goyal, Founder of Tracxn Labs, said: "India's egg supply chain is largely unorganised. There is an opportunity for a player to implement best practices in production and create a trustworthy consumer brand. We were quite impressed by the founding team passion to solve this market." The company was founded by Abhishek Negi, Uttam Kumar, Aditya Singh and Pankaj Pandey. MJH ANSANSANS

Agritech startup Eggoz raises Rs 2.5 crore to fund expansion

<ul><li>National Bank for Agriculture And Rural Development (<keyword id="6360385" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="nabard">NABARD</keyword>) has announced a $100 million fund for <keyword id="6362513" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="startups">startups</keyword>. </li><li>According to reports, the new fund will look into equity investments in “asset-light, innovative, technology-led start-ups in its focus areas”. </li><li>India’s <keyword id="1366179" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Agritech">agritech</keyword> startups have been growing fast and securing quick investments in the past few years. </li></ul>India’s agritech and rural startups just got a huge boost with the government-owned National Bank for Agriculture And Rural Development (NABARD) <a href="https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/agri-business/nabventures-launches-maiden-fund-to-back-agri-food-and-rural-start-ups/article27116329.ece">announcing</a> a $100 million fund for startups. Until now, NABARD had been instrumental in providing <keyword id="6356305" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="funds">funds</keyword> to startups through other funds. In January 2019, NABARD had announced the launch of NABVENTURES Ltd, which functions as its venture capital arm. According to <a href="https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/agri-business/nabventures-launches-maiden-fund-to-back-agri-food-and-rural-start-ups/article27116329.ece">reports</a>, the fund will look into equity investments in “asset-light, innovative, technology-led start-ups in its focus areas” that is agriculture, food and rural development space. Agriculture is the most important contributing industry to the Indian economy, however, a problem that has persisted has been the lack of technologically sound advancements in the field. Farmers have had issues in various fields – dealing with the middlemen menace, storage of crops, surveillance etc. And here’s where agritech startups come in. Over the years, India has seen a growth in the number of agritech startups, which has also led to VCs and accelerator programs turn their focus to the sector, given that it caters to a large part of India’s population. This has resulted in agritech startups coming under the spotlight for investments and more. Recently, Ninjacart, an agritech supply-chain startup, got an $89 million funding in a Series C round from a marquee investor like Tiger Global. Now, with a focused fund coming in from the government’s NABARD, it will only boost the sector. See Also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/blackbuck-raises-150-million-offers-employees-to-liquidate-stocks-upto-25/articleshow/69139508.cms">This Indian startup’s latest funding is also going to make its employees rich</a>

India’s state agricultural bank NABARD has a $100 million fund for startups

New Delhi, Dec 17 () Agritech start-up Bijak on Tuesday said it has raised over USD 2.5 million (about Rs 18 crore) from various investors, including Omnivore and Omidyar Network India, for expansion of its business.
 Sequoia Capital India's rapid scale-up programme, Surge and Better Capital have also invested.
 Gurugram-based Bijak, which was launched in May 2019 by Nukul Upadhye, Mahesh Jakhotia, Jitender Bedwal, Daya Rai and Nikhil Tripathi, would utilise the fund on new technology and hiring fresh talent, among others.
 Bijak is a platform that gives agricultural commodity buyers and sellers better prices, increased working capital, and optimised logistics. It brings accountability and transparency into the agricultural value chain through a buyer/seller rating system, and enables traders, wholesalers, and food processors to keep a ledger of their transactions, access transparent pricing, and improve their working capital cycles.
 The app is available in several local languages and currently caters to multiple agricultural states, including Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Bihar, and Uttarakhand.
 "Focused on addressing challenges such as accountability and trust in the B2B (business-to-business) agri commodity trade, we are targeting a USD 200 billion market in India which has almost 5 million middlemen. Additionally, we have customised the app for agricultural commodity traders, with terminologies used in the mandis (wholesale markets) that they are familiar with," said Bijak co-founder Nukul Upadhye.
 Mark Kahn, managing partner of Omnivore, said, "As India's leading agritech-focused VC, Omnivore plans to help Bijak scale more aggressively, leveraging our network across the agri ecosystem to identify potential partnerships and onboard strategic B2B customers."
 Omidyar Network India's Investment Partner Siddharth Nautiyal, said, "Bijak is aiming to build a first-of-its-kind private online marketplace that can help market discoverability, earn a fair price, create accountability and trust and provide services like credit and logistics to a market that is highly underserved. We believe all of this will lead to a greater benefit for the farmer."
 Omnivore is a venture capital (VC) firm, based in India, which funds entrepreneurs building the future of agriculture and food systems. Omnivore has backed over 20 agritech start-ups since 2011. MJH HRS

Agritech start-up Bijak raises USD 2.5 million from investors

New Delhi, Dec 12 () Agritech startup Ecozen on Thursday said it has raised USD 6 million (around Rs 42 crore) from investors to fund its expansion plan.
Based in Pune, Ecozen was founded by three IIT Kharagpur alumni, Devendra Gupta, Prateek Singhal and Vivek Pandey. It develops technology-enabled products to strengthen farm-to-fork value chain of perishables.
Ecozen said in a statement it has completed its USD 6 million Series A fund raise, after receiving investment from Sathguru Catalyser's Innovation in Food &amp; 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.
The company had raised USD 3 million in seed funding.
Ecozen's irrigation and cold chain products (Ecotron and Ecofrost) help farmers who grow perishables to increase their yields, store their produce longer, and realise higher prices. The company said that about 25,000 farmers in India use its products.
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, the statement said.
Ecozen Co-Founder &amp; CEO Devendra Gupta said: "The funding raised will enable us to expand our product range, production capacity, and enter new geographies".
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 &amp; food value chain".
Ravi Narasimham, Investment Director at Caspian, said, "...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". MJH BAL

Agri-tech startup Ecozen raises USD 6mn in Series A funding

<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/innovation-leaders"></a><div type="image" title="Robin Saluoks is co-founder and acting CIO of the climate technology company eAgronom." height="3574" width="4765" msid="93060919" hostid="261" sizebytes="1044870"></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>Robin Saluoks is cofounder and CEO of eAgronom, a climate technology company based in Estonia that helps farmers break into sustainable production.</li><li>In a recent interview with Insider, Saluoks gave us a bird's eye view of his company's journey and his approach to driving innovation. </li></ul>Robin Saluoks is cofounder and CEO of climate technology company eAgronom, which helps farmers build more sustainable businesses using AI and other innovative technologies. The company has more than 1,500 agribusiness customers managing 1m+ hectares of land across Europe. In a recent interview with Insider, Saluoks gave us a bird's eye view of his company's journey and his approach to driving innovation for local farmers:<h3>What is the biggest business challenge you're facing at the moment, and how are you tackling it?</h3>One of the biggest business challenges we face is finding ways to better connect stakeholders working on genuine climate targets with partners who work on projects that sequester CO2 from the atmosphere. More specifically, we are working with farmers who want to bring sustainable changes to their farms but struggle to do so in a way that makes sense for them in the short term and profitably.<h3>How does tech help you drive innovation?</h3>We are developing tools to calculate emissions on farms and verify if the data is correct to produce <keyword id="14530199" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="carbon-credits" source="Orion">carbon credits</keyword> aligned with guidelines. Our core technology revolves around data collecting and data verifying tooling for land use management, which is easy for farmers to plug in and perform their own data analysis for measuring, reporting, and verification (MRV). We also integrate machine learning and satellite monitoring into our platform to make data more robust.<h3> What are your current growth plans?</h3>Earlier this year, we raised a Series A round of funding to help us optimize the farmer onboarding process, set up new global dealerships, and launch the eAgronom Carbon Program. We have also launched a program to finance high-quality carbon sequestration projects by pre-purchasing the credits, so that farmers and landowners no longer need to wait for five years or more to receive the funds and can get started on future-proofing their farms today.<h3>Who do you partner with internally and externally to drive business and tech decisions?</h3>As a climate tech working in farm management, we have always believed that it should be farmers first. As we scale and partner with other business stakeholders, we continue to work hand-in-hand with farmers to understand their needs and deliver practical solutions. Dealing with solutions for the climate, we also work with scientists from different universities and data experts to avoid greenwashing and strengthen genuine climate commitments. We are engaging with highly-credible external auditors to verify the Carbon Removal Units (CRUs), as well as organizations that set carbon accounting standards.<h3>How excited are you about the technology of the future and what it means for your business and your sector?</h3>As an optimist, I see enormous growth opportunities ahead in the agritech and climate tech sectors. Brilliant solutions are being developed across the industry — from carbon sequestration and storage to green energy solutions — and not just on the technology side. We are also seeing a major integration of agroecological knowledge in the industry. For me, this is an excellent sign that more people from different backgrounds are collaborating to produce solutions ready to be used in the market.

Cofounder and CEO of climate technology company eAgronom uses 'farmers first' mindset to drive innovation and lower barriers to sustainable agriculture

You Searched For "agritech technology" and got 8 results

A fund for agritech startup, inclusion of drones to boost Indian farming

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Agritech startup Vegrow raises $13 million Lightspeed, Elevation

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New Microsoft programme to empower agritech startups in India

IANS

Agritech startup Eggoz raises Rs 2.5 crore to fund expansion

PTI

India’s state agricultural bank NABARD has a $100 million fund for startups

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Agritech start-up Bijak raises USD 2.5 million from investors

PTI

Agri-tech startup Ecozen raises USD 6mn in Series A funding

PTI

Cofounder and CEO of climate technology company eAgronom uses 'farmers first' mindset to drive innovation and lower barriers to sustainable agriculture

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