NEW DELHI, 7 January 2021: Agritech startup Agri10x has announced that it has raised a seed round from Omnivore, without giving any details on the amount raised.
Agri10x provides a blockchain and AI-enabled e-marketplace that connects farmers directly with buyers, helping them sell their produce at competitive prices.
Blockchain plays a critical role in Agri10x’s business model, ensuring that all transactions on their platform are traceable, transparent, and tamper-proof. The platform also integrates affiliated services, including quality assessment, warehousing, cold storage, and logistics to deliver a complete market linkage solution for Indian farmers.
Based in Pune, Agri10x was co-founded in 2018 by Pankajj Ghode (CEO), Sundeep Bose (CTO), and Abhijith Naraparaju (COO). Currently, the company’s operations are spread across Maharashtra, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Gujarat.
Agri10x is working closely with the GoI’s Common Service Centres (CSC), a massive network of access points across rural India for delivery of e-governance services. The company appointed Village-Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs) work in collaboration with CSCs to help farmers register on the Agri10x platform. The startup believes that in a few years, it will employ tens of thousands of VLEs, actively contributing to rural employment generation.
Agri10x plans to use this funding to expand across 8 more states, onboard 1 million farmers, and provide fintech solutions to buyers and farmers via NBFC partnerships. The startup also intends to strengthen their exports operations across Middle East and Southeast Asian countries, providing new markets for Indian farmers. In the near future, Agri10x intends to partner with leading agrochemical and seed companies, providing market linkage solutions for their farmer customers.
Commenting on the investment, Pankajj Ghode, Co-Founder and CEO of Agri10x, noted, “Indian farmers face huge challenges bringing their produce to market and often receive suboptimal pricing as a result. The platform we are building at Agri10x will address many of these challenges and help farmers improve their incomes substantially. We are excited to partner with Omnivore as we streamline agricultural value chains across India while supporting farmers''.
According to Jinesh Shah, Managing Partner at Omnivore, "Agri10x is providing farmers with direct access to multiple buyers across India, which will ensure competitive pricing and transparency for all parties involved. In addition, by helping farmers to receive better pricing for higher quality, incentives are aligned for them to grow better quality food for all.”
