Technology

India’s AGRI wins $17.3M for farmers to get seeds, pesticides and other inputs easier

According to data from the government, agriculture in India supports livelihoods for over 42% its population and contributes 18% of the GDP. The sector lacks a robust supply chain, and logistics are complicated in remote geographies where most farmers are located. The sector lacks a robust supply chain, and logistics are complicated in remote geographies where most farmers are located.

Additionally, India’s agri-inputs landscape is different from that of the U.S. and Europe due to its fragmented market structure, diversified demand, and seasonal nature of crops.

Agrim aims to address all these discrepancies by building a just-in-time supply chain to help agri-input retailers buy inputs from a specific manufacturer.

The marketplace helps take the order to the manufacturing warehouse the moment it comes from a retailer, co-founder Mukul Garg said in an exclusive interview.

Garg, a second-time entrepreneur who co-founded the travel app Tripigator in 2013, founded Agrim along with Avi Jain in April 2020. He has also headed products and growth at logistics company BlackBuck and was responsible for building its on-demand trucking marketplace.

Agrim deals with retailers and manufacturers that have not used an e-commerce platform before, offering a minimalistic user interface along with the ability to let retailers set the pricing. The portal includes a customized order management system which assigns a manufacturer for every order and ensures that pickup and delivery times are in sync. The startup offers its catalog under four main categories: seeds (agrochemicals), nutrition, and tools. Each category has subcategories, totaling 600, such as pesticides, herbicides and fungicides to protect crops, and 70 in the equipment segment. The system uses algorithms to determine prices that are based on demand and supply. This allows for dynamic pricing. The startup takes anywhere between 10% to 60-70% of margins, Garg said, after giving a certain price to the manufacturer.

Agrim also offers lending to retailers, who usually do not get access to credit through traditional channels, and about 10% of its retail base currently uses that credit offering, Garg told TechCrunch. Garg told TechCrunch that the company plans to use its new funding to expand its catalog of agri-inputs from over 30,000 items to 150,000 in the next three years. It also wants to expand to southern and western parts of India, including Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and some parts Maharashtra. It plans to use its fresh funding to expand its catalog of agri-inputs from over 30,000 items to 150,000 in the next three years, and to expand to southern and western parts of India, including Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and some parts of Maharashtra, Garg told TechCrunch.

Similarly, the startup plans to expand its catalog by adding two new categories: animal feed covering cattle, fish and shrimp feed and testing out irrigation equipment.

Agrim also seeks to enter into the market of private-label agri-inputs within the next six months in order to help farmers get inputs at retail prices instead of paying a premium

“We are trying to democratize as a platform,” said Garg. We are seeing many mismatches between supply and demand. So with private labels, we want to solve for unmet demand or supply.”

Agrim claims a base of 1,200 manufacturers and 25,000 retailers serving 15 million farmers. The startup has a revenue run-rate of over $60 million per year. It generated more than $36 million during the last financial period.

story originally seen here

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