Abhishek Yadav
Agritech startup funding: Agritech startup Bull Agritech has raised $100K (Rs 80 lakh) in its pre-seed funding round led by startup accelerator PedalStart, the latter announced on Friday. Part of PedalStart’s current cohort One-to-N, the startup is a commodity supply chain company that connects farmers directly to the agri-commodities processors to sell their non-perishable crop while commodity processors get direct access to the farmer, giving them control over the last mile of the supply chain.
The company said it will deploy capital for growth and accelerate the operations along with hiring. Launched in 2021, Bull Agritech has more than 15,000 farmers on its platform and has facilitated trade worth over Rs 25 crore.
“We see a huge opportunity in the non-perishable agri-trade market as the farmers have been left with a 100-year-old monopoly that is APMC which lacks market connectivity, transparency, and efficiency. It is a known fact that the intermediaries use this monopoly to manipulate the market which results in farmers’ loss,” said Hit Desai, Co-founder, Bull Agritech in a statement.
The agri market in India is expected to see a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.41 per cent in its gross production value from $399.20 billion in 2023 to $597.70 billion in 2028, according to data platform Statista. While the import value in the agriculture market is projected to amount to $2,266 million in 2023 and grow at a CAGR of 28.09 per cent till 2028, the export value is projected to amount to $7,887 million in 2023 and see a CAGR of 5.34 per cent over next five years.
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Manas Pal and Aditya Darolia, Co-founders at PedalStart, said, “With a mission to revolutionize the non-perishable agri-trade market and empower farmers through transparent and efficient market connectivity, Bull Agritech has already facilitated trades worth INR 25 Crores and onboarded 15000 farmers digitally, illustrating their rapid growth and impact in just 18 months.”