Agritech Startup BharatAgri Raises $6.5 Mn, Eyes 150K Subscriber Base

Amid the ongoing digital transformation in the country, technology has entered agriculture too, creating new opportunities for all the stakeholders. In 2013, where India had only 43 agritech startups, today, it has more than 1,000 startups catering to different segments in the agriculture sector, according to a recent Inc42 Plus report. One such startup, BharatAgri, has now raised $6.5 Mn in its Series A round led by Omnivore. In addition, existing investors India Quotient and 021 Capital also participated in the round. 

Launched in 2017 by Siddharth Dialani and Sai Gole, BharatAgri provides farmers with an app-based platform for AI-based agronomy services on a paid subscription, which increases farm incomes through a systematic implementation of scientific farming techniques.

The startup’s application collects data on more than 30 critical parameters to offer custom advisory across multiple crops including grains, pulses, fruits and vegetables. In addition, its platform claims to offer targeted insights from time to time and regular crop monitoring for an affordable price. 

“Even three years ago, it was unimaginable that rural Indians would be paying monthly subscription fees to Netflix and YouTube, which is normal today. BharatAgri has demonstrated that the same is possible with farmers, who see so much value in our advisory platform that they willingly pay subscription fees,” said Dialani. 

“In the next few months, we will be expanding our platform to provide other agricultural services, starting with direct-to-farmer agri input supply,” he added.

Until this round, BharatAgri had raised over $2.5 Mn from 021 Capital, India Quotient, Sachin Oswal, Ajay Prabhu, Farid Ahsan, and others. 

Since 2020, the startup claims to have witnessed a 20x growth in its paid subscription sales with a 65% renewal rate. It has over 33,000 active paid users and plans to reach a subscription base of 150,000 by March next year. Currently, its platform has an equal number of both, farmers growing horticulture crops and farmers growing commodity crops. BharatAgri claims, on average, farmers pay $8/INR 600 per acre for a six-month subscription.

In the past years, investment in the agritech segment has seen a CAGR of 35%; from private equity and venture capital firms investing $329 Mn in 2020, the agritech investments in India could soar to $35 billion by 2025, according to a Bain & Company report. 

The online farm inputs and digital logistics segment are poised to grow by two manifolds into a $150 Bn and $100 Bn market, respectively by 2025. In the market, BharatAgri competes with the likes of Nofence, Cropin, FarmLogs and SourceTrace, among others.