Govt. Looks To Mentor 8-12 Agri Startups With AGRI UDAAN Accelerator Programme

In order to fuel the growth of innovative ideas in the agriculture sector, the government has launched the AGRI UDAAN – Food and Agribusiness Accelerator 2.0 for agri startups. AGRI UDAAN will mentor startups and help them connect with potential investors.

As per an official statement, the AGRI UDAAN- Food and Agribusiness Accelerator 2.0, is run by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). ICAR’s National Academy of Agricultural Research Management (NAARM); Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A) Incubator’s Center for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) will look after the programme. Apart from this, the National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB) and DST have also come forward to support the accelerator programme.

AGRI UDAAN is a six-month-programme in which shortlisted agri startups with innovative business models will be mentored and guided to scale up their operations. shortlisted startups stand a chance to get up to $40K (INR 25 Lakhs) funding assistance.

Narendra Singh Rathore, Deputy Director General of Agricultural Education at ICAR said, “The idea is to attract the youth from rural India and elsewhere, and train them so they can add value to the farmers’ produce.”

AGRI UDAAN will reach out to agri startups through roadshows in several cities like Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Pune, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Hyderabad. 40 startups will be shortlisted for the programme for the first round. They will pitch their ideas to a panel of evaluators. Post evaluation about 8 to 12 startups will be selected for the final, capacity-building workshop.

The shortlisted cohort will undergo a capacity building (CB) workshop in ICAR-NAARM. The startups will be trained in different aspects of technology commercialisation, product validation, business plan preparation, risk analysis, customer engagement, finance management, fund raising etc. The startups will also be provided with mentors. The accelerator programme will culminate with the demo day/investors meet at Hyderabad and Mumbai.

Here is a timeline for the AGRI UDAAN accelerator programme.

Applications close on September 15, 2017. Interested agri startups can apply here!