Despite a large increase in the production of most agricultural products over the past decade, farmers who own small farms face difficulties in marketing their products due to a lack of capacity to aggregate products at the level exploitation and limited detention capacities. This is where a startup like Arya.ag comes in handy, connecting the farming community with wholesale buyers of agricultural products through a robust digital platform.
Founded in 2013, the Arya.ag integrated agricultural trade platform tries to connect farmers to large buyers of agricultural products by providing a host of services such as farmer-level product integration, warehousing financing , providing loans to farmers against crops deposited in warehouses, information on mandi prices and ensuring market linkages under one digital platform. Many large companies, including Cargill, Adani, ITC and Olam, have already joined Arya.ag. The company has received $87 million in funding since it began raising funds in 2016 from a host of equity investors including Light Rock, Asia Impact, Quona Capital and Omnivore Partners.
The platform provides information on approximately 48 commodities, including paddy, wheat, maize, oilseeds and cotton, with a footprint in 21 states. The company has a significant presence in Bihar, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat covering 470 districts in the country. The digital platform offers a range of services, including weather reports, warehousing facilities, loans against products held in warehouses, in addition to connecting farmers to wholesale buyers of agricultural products. The company also provides pre-harvest crop yield estimation so that millers have access to harvest size information in advance.
“Currently, we have established links with 7,00,000 farmers and about 500 agricultural producer organizations,” says Prasanna Rao, co-founder and managing director of Arya.ag. One of the biggest players in the startup ecosystem in the agricultural sector, Arya.ag focuses on four aspects: aggregation, providing storage and financing solutions and offering market links, charging a fee of around 2-5% for the services rendered. It also provides pre-harvest crop yield estimation so that millers have access to harvest size information in advance.
Facilitating exchanges between buyers and sellers via its platform, the start-up currently has assets under management (AUM), or grain stocks, worth approximately 15,000 crore in around 10,000 warehouses listed on Arya.ag. Out of these, commodities worth around2,000 crore were sold through the platform in 2021-22. Through her branch NBFC – arya dhan – she disbursed loans worth 450 crore in 2021-22. It also generated revenue worth 300 crore in 2021-22 from the various services it offers.
“Our goal in 2022-23 would be to sell a large part of the products kept in our warehouses,” says Rao. The company aims to facilitate transactions worth more than 7,500 crore through its platform in the current financial year. It also offers a unique product, Arya Pay Safe, through which the money paid by buyers for the purchase of products is kept in an escrow account, with sellers or farmers receiving the amount when the buyer is satisfied with the quality. products delivered. .
As part of its expansion plan, the agricultural startup will strengthen its ability to digitize farms through technology integration, providing an end-to-end agricultural blockchain. The company will soon announce the acquisition of a start-up specializing in this field.