Agritech has become an attractive avenue for investors with the increasing global demand for healthier food and the growing recognition of the need for sustainable and efficient agriculture. Nearly 100 Indian agritech startups raised close to $1.33 billion across 139 deals between January 2020 and June 2022, according to Entrackr’s data tracking platform Fintrackr. This includes around 37 deals worth $155 million in 2020, 58 deals worth $636 million in 2021 and 44 deals worth $539 million this year.
Last year, plant bioscience startup Absolute raised $100 million across funding rounds from leading global investors including Sequoia Capital India, Alpha Wave Global (AWI) and Tiger Global at a valuation of $500 million. Agam Khare, founder and CEO of Absolute, an eight-year-old startup, believes that the next wave of innovation in agritech will be driven by biology and life sciences which will position agriculture at the heart of sustainability solutions.
“At Absolute, we are enabling the transition from traditional agricultural practices to precision farming practices to foster sustainability,” says Khare, adding that there has been considerable growth in the use of precision farming in India in recent years. “For example, the use of sensors to optimise irrigation has increased in some parts of the country. There has also been some adoption of drones for tasks such as crop mapping and pest detection,” Khare states.
Khare is of the opinion that the adoption of precision farming in India continues to grow as awareness of these technologies increases and their cost decreases. “Internet penetration is also a key factor behind the growth of precision farming in India.”
The company’s three business lines include a universal AgCloud business called Upaj that offers insurance services, financial products and soil testing among others, which the company claims is used by over 1.1 million farmers. It also has a bioabled farm input business and a global trade business across 16 countries called Silkroute.
“At the heart, what we’re really trying to do is transform agriculture into a bio-abled process; in a way that goes back to being how nature intended it to be,” says Khare.
So what is stopping Indian farmers from switching to precision farming? Khare lists two reasons. The first is the lack of one cohesive solution that can provide farmers with everything that they need to grow better – a true full-stack solution from innovative proprietary farm inputs to insurance and financial products to access to global markets. The second being the absence of a true agri-tech solution deeply rooted in agricultural life sciences that performs despite the need for farmers switching their current routine patterns while reducing their dependence on harmful chemicals and irrigation needs.
In the absence of the right kind of advice farmers usually end up spending more resources than they need to, Khare states. To make farmers become tech-savvy, while Khare thinks the government has a large role to play, but he believes the key lies with young innovators and startups.