MUMBAI, 13 April 2022: Bengaluru-based ag-tech startup, Agrizy has raised $4 Million in a seed round led by Ankur Capital. This round also saw participation from Omnivore and notable angels like Rajesh Yabaji (CEO, BlackBuck), Zetwerk's Co-founders Srinath Ramakkrushnan, Amrit Acharya, Rahul Sharma, and Vishal Chaudhary among others.
The funds raised will be utilized to build strong business and engineering teams, develop a suite of digital services for the processed agri marketplace and ramp up customer traction in targeted value chains across various locations in India. The startup will use the funds to build out the product and accelerate business in targeted value chains.
Founded in September 2021 by Vicky Dodani and Saket Chirania, Agrizy is developing a tech-first platform to bridge the processed agri supply chain. The tech platform connects the processors and buyers of non-perishable farm products across both food and non-food categories like jute, oilseeds, cereals, pulses, and others to optimally discover and fulfill transactions.
This will support agri processors with innovative technology solutions, for effective utilization to execute the trade through Agrizy's logistics partners. The founding team comes with a good mix of operations, finance, and logistics experience at high-growth startups like Blackbuck, Bizongo, and Zoomcar, as well as deep ties to the agri processing domain.
Agrizy is the first investment by Ankur Capital through their India Pitch Fest program. The first cohort had over 500 applications and of these, 50 applicants were shortlisted for the final round, where they were given an opportunity to pitch their startup idea to various micro-VCs.
The IPF (India Pitch Fest) platform continues to support the entrepreneurs from the diverse startup ecosystem and collaborate with the community to mentor startups with the partner networks.
Ankur Capital and Omnivore are notable investors in agri tech. Their investment in Agrizy indicates the large scope and potential that can be tapped into this space.
The value of foodgrains production in India is projected to be nearly half a trillion dollars by 2025. But the structure of the industry and the intermediate supply chain remains largely unorganized, with 2.5 million - mostly small - units employing 7 million people across India. Logistics for agri trade remains disaggregated, with high dependency on middlemen for last-minute fulfillment.
The opportunity in organizing supply chains for procurement and processing, as stakeholders leverage digital technologies, new-age logistics and smart financing is massive. Agrizy is focused on digitizing these value chains, by building a platform that will streamline and optimize transactions between aggregators, FPOs, farmers, and processors, including the facilitation of formal credit for these small businesses. This should unlock value for all key stakeholders in this ecosystem.
Vicky Dodani, Co-Founder, Agrizy, said, "We aim to be the single point of contact for the agri processing units by providing them an end-to-end fulfillment platform and simplifying their procurement and sales cycle. The recent round of funding from two notable funds investing in Agri Tech reinvigorates our vision of transforming the processed agri supply chain."
Saket Chirania, Co-Founder, Agrizy, added, "There is a lot of untapped potential in the way agri processing units can leverage technology to grow and thrive. Agrizy offers solutions across digital vendor management, and supply and value chain automation to its Agri Processing Units. We are sustainably growing our business by 100 percent MOM from inception."
Krishnan Neelakantan, Partner at Ankur Capital, also shared, "We have been keenly following the US $500 billion agri commodity space, seeing the potential for large opportunities to get unlocked. While these value chains continue to follow archaic practices, we have seen that Vicky, Saket, and Agrizy team have developed a deep understanding of the space and insights into how digitization can disrupt these large agri value chains in India. We see Agrizy building a platform that can enable better price realization, expand business footprint across locations and unlock value for SMEs by enabling formal credit. We are glad to be part of their journey."
"Vicky and Saket are perfect examples of the new wave of agritech founders, who are building on their prior startup experience (Blackbuck, Zoomcar, Bizongo) to transform agricultural value chains in India. Omnivore is proud to back Agrizy as they work to build the country's largest agri processing platform," Mark Kahn, Omnivore said.
Image credit : apnnews.com