Nasscom: Over 450 agri-tech start-ups received $248-million funding in H1
India currently hosts more than 450 start-ups in the agri-tech segment, and the sector has received more than $248 million funding in the first six months this year, IT industry body Nasscom said on Monday.
In a report titled ‘Agritech in India — Emerging Trends in 2019’, Nasscom said that growing at 25 per cent yearon-year, India currently hosts more than 450 startups in the agri-tech sector.
“Over the recent years, the agri-tech sector in India has witnessed some of the global and sector-focused funds directly investing in agri-tech start-ups ... As of June 2019, the sector has received more than $248 million funding, a massive growth of 300 per cent as compared to the previous year,” it said.
Interestingly, every ninth agri-tech start-up in the world is originating from India. More than 50 per cent of these start-ups offer supply chain solutions such as market linkage, better access to inputs, etc.
Steadily advancing
“India’s agriculture sector is advancing steadily towards its digital transformation and the startup ecosystem is playing a critical role here, bringing innovation and disruption in much-needed areas,” Nasscom President Debjani Ghosh said.
Adoption of technology in agriculture has always needed a structured institutional focus and technology firms are trying to break into the agricultural landscape using newer business models, she added.
The report said Indian companies are increasingly looking at global markets to expand with focus on regions such as South-East Asia, Europe, Africa and South America.
According to the report, in the last five years more than five global agri-tech companies have ventured in India, as compared to more than 25 Indian agri-tech start-ups with global presence.
Newer areas
Also, new emerging areas such as market linkage, digital agriculture, better access to inputs, FaaS (functions-as-a-service) and financing are attracting large traction.
These technology adoptions are enabling numerous agri-tech start-ups to bring forth farming-related advanced technological mechanisms to help local farming become a sustainable and profit-yielding enterprise, it said.
The report pointed out that measures like setting up of micro-funds (ranging from $2-14 million) to spur innovation, offering support in terms of incubation, acceleration, and catalytic funding, opening of incubation centres, etc need to be implemented.