Agri Tech and Agri Fintech Companies Empowering Farmers
The agriculture sector is vital to India's rural economy, employing around 50% of the labour force and contributing 18.8% to the country's economy. It has made significant progress since the Green Revolution in the 1960s and the White Revolution in the 1970s, with the adoption of high-yield variety seeds, farm mechanization, increased agricultural credit, and the use of fertilizers. India is now the largest producer of spices, and pulses, and has significant production in wheat, rice, fruits, milk, eggs, poultry, and livestock.
The country accounts for approximately 12% of global agricultural output, second only to China. The growth of the agriculture sector has played a crucial role in the development of rural areas, supported by the expansion of financial services through nationalized banks, Gramin Banks, NABARD schemes, and initiatives such as the Kisan Credit Card and Jan Dhan account. Financial inclusion in rural areas has been further enhanced through the use of MFIs, NBFCs, Agri Techs, Fintechs, and various digital infrastructures like Digilocker, UPI Payment Systems, Account Aggregators, and ONDC.
Indian farmers have brought food security to India but have been far from achieving income security for their families in the last 7.5 decades. The Indian government has made plans to double their incomes by 2025. Towards that 120 Mln Farmers are covered by the central government under the PM Kisan Benefit Scheme, these small and marginal farmers constituting more than 86% of farmers in India, need the adoption of agri-tech and agri-fintech to double their incomes.
There has been a lot of progress made in agri-tech and agri-fintech over the last few years, to help farmers on agri inputs side, farming techniques, storage, supply chain management and finance. On account of these, there has been a convergence of agri-tech and fintech to form agri-fintech as the business line to meet both agri and agri-financing needs. This involves closely working with central and state governments, NABARD and banks who are mandated to lend 18% of bank credit to agriculture. One of the largest modes of lending has been Kisan Credit Card for farmers delivered through PSU Banks, Gramin Banks, RRBs, Private Banks, PACs-Primary Credit Co-Operatives and new age companies like Samunnati, JaiKisan, WhatsLoan and Satsure as agritech and agri fintech companies
Samunnati - Agri Network and Agri Finance Company
Samunnati is an open agricultural network that aims to unlock the immense potential of Indian agriculture, with a specific focus on empowering smallholder farmers. The name "Samunnati" embodies the core principles of collective growth and prosperity within the agricultural ecosystem. By serving the entire value chain, Samunnati provides Agri Commerce and Agri Finance solutions that enhance the efficiency and productivity of affiliated Farmer Collectives and the broader agricultural ecosystem.
Headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, Samunnati operates in more than 100 agri value chains across 22 states in India. Through the application of technology-enabled interventions and collaborative partnerships, Samunnati has facilitated over $1 billion in gross transaction value to date. With access to over 1500-FPOs- Farmer Collectives and a member base exceeding 6 million farmers, Samunnati envisions impacting one in every four farming households through its network by 2027. By placing smallholder farmers at the centre of its mission, Samunnati strives to drive inclusive growth and foster collective prosperity in Indian agriculture.
Jai Kisan- Neo Bank for Bharat
Arjun Ahluwalia and Adriel Maniego founded Jai Kisan with a clear objective: to revolutionise banking for rural individuals by offering a comprehensive and seamless experience. In rural areas, a significant credit gap exists, leaving people with limited options and subjecting them to high-interest rates from informal moneylenders. Jai Kisan recognized this pressing need for change in the day-to-day banking practices of over 600 million people in India.
At the core of Jai Kisan's operations is a deep understanding of rural value chains, which allows the organization to prioritize customer empathy. They strive to provide tailored financial solutions that address the unique challenges faced by rural communities. Jai Kisan is a rural-focused Neo Bank, and their application, Bharat Khata, serves as a one-stop solution for the financial needs of both rural businesses and individuals. Starting with well-suited credit products, Jai Kisan collaborates with businesses of all sizes and structures within the value chain, including retail outlets and large corporations. By offering financial services to middlemen like dealers and aggregators, as well as individual customers, Jai Kisan fuels growth and prosperity for everyone involved.
Whatsloan - Agri Fintech company
WhatsLoan is a unique LaaS (loan as a service) company that focuses on customer segments while remaining loan product agnostic. Established as a lending tech company in 2019 to meet the needs of Indian borrowers for ease of access to loans under agri, consumer and MSME customer segments. The startup’s commercial model operates on a pay-per-loan file basis. As a lend tech company within the fintech industry, it specialises in building micro modular platforms on the cloud and for premises deployments for lending across various customer segments; agri, retail, and MSMEs. WhatsLoan has simplified lending for banks borrowing for farmers with a platform approach on the SaaS (software as a service) model. WhatsLoan can be described as a NeoLending Digital Platform. It differentiates itself from the competitors, which include fintech and established LOS (loan origination system)/LMS (loan management system) companies like Perfios, Lentra, OPL, Jocata, New Gen, Nucleus, and Sysarch. While explaining the uniqueness of the WhatsLoan Platform for lending esp for agri lending Timmana Gouda, Founder of the company says “We are digital direct and first of its kind in agri lending platform for Digital KCC Under New RBI Guidelines of Sept 2022, simplifying the borrowing process by working with banks to serve both Bharat users and India users digital millennials through a self and assisted modes on web and mobile. We bring the banks to the borrowers to meet their loan needs at their convenience reducing turnaround time from weeks to minutes and reducing the cost of lending operations by 90%.
SatSure- a Satellite Data company meeting Agri and Agri Fintech needs
SatSure is a pioneering deep-tech company specialising in decision intelligence. By harnessing the power of satellite remote sensing, machine learning, big data analytics, and cloud computing, SatSure creates innovative products and solutions that enable enterprises and individuals to make informed and intelligent decisions. The company is driven by a vision to become a globally renowned leader in leveraging space data applications to address sustainability and financial inclusion challenges.
Established in 2017 by Prateep Basu, Rashmit Singh Sukhmani, and Abhishek Raju, who are alumni of the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), SatSure capitalises on satellite data, remote sensing technology, artificial intelligence, and big data analytics. Their primary focus is to provide decision intelligence solutions to the banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) sector. SatSure's unique value proposition within the BFSI segment lies in its ability to connect the dots between agriculture, infrastructure, and climate change, thereby contributing to sustainability efforts. By leveraging these core technologies, SatSure empowers the agri-lending and BFSI industry to make data-driven decisions with profound implications for the environment and society.
The company has necessary collaborations with insurance companies for crop loss assessment, with banks, agri fintech, and credit bureaus They offer Agri Scores -land and crop scores as alternative scores for low or nil scores to farmers for better approval rates for their agri loans.
