Agri-tech start-up Unnati raises Rs 12 crore from Nabventures

Agri-tech start-up Unnati has raised Rs 12 crore from Nabventures, a fund backed by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard), to scale up its tech platform and set up more partner stores.

Founded by Amit Sinha, former CFO of PayTM, and Ashok Prasad, Unnati is a technology-enabled platform to provide access to competitively priced inputs to farmers. It uses its reach to enable farmers to get a remunerative price for their produce.

Prasad said, “At Unnati, our overarching goal is to empower the country’s farmers and bring the best of technologies to enhance their productivity. Since we cater to a multitude of farming needs, the current capital injection will allow us to expand our value proposition in terms of innovative digital tools that we offer.”

It provides financial services to the farmer, besides point-of-purchase farm advisories. Unnati has a network of partner stores for selling agri inputs and produce in eastern, central and western India.

G R Chintala, chairman Nabard and Nabventures, said, “Unnati has created a platform to digitalise the major components in the food and agribusiness value chain. The predictive capabilities of the data captured by the platform enhance efficiencies, while its transparent processes help in building trust among farmers and FPOs. Unnati has the potential to be a nationwide platform for multiple services in the agricultural value chain.”