“We have started actually setting up weather stations for some of these FPOs to collect weather data in terms of precipitation, wind speed, rainfall, sunlight, so that at some point, we will be able to structure insurance products for the members of the FPOs,” Anil Kumar SG, Founder and CEO of Samunnati told ET. “We are also engaging with other technology players in providing price information, weather advisory, and information about the cropping patterns through robo calls in the local language.”
Earlier this week, Samunnati announced that it had hit the 10,000 crores Gross Transactional Value (GTV) mark across its agri commerce and agri finance business. Furthermore, 50% of this GTV came in over the last 18 months, the company said in a statement.
Samunnati’s vision is to make markets work for the smallholder farmers and make agri value chains operate at a higher equilibrium. Samunnati’s solutions enable affiliated Farmer Collectives and the larger ecosystem to be more efficient and productive through multiple technology enabled interventions and collaborative partnerships. It has a presence in more than 100 agri value chains spread over 22 states in India.
“Currently, we work with about 1500 FPOs or farmer collectives. The cumulative membership is about 6 million smallholder farmers. We don’t work with 6 million, but they have a membership base and it is growing. On the demand side, we work with about 3500 agri enterprises. We see a lot of traction in terms of making the value chains operate at a higher equilibrium by removing the working capital constraint.”
Kumar added that the kind of talent that is getting into the agritech at all levels and the number of startups that are coming up in this space are among the most promising and significant trends.
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“The number of youngsters as well as experienced people moving into the agriculture is significant. We have a couple of people from ISB, some from the IIMs and we have two people from IIT Kharagpur. An agri entity getting mainstream talent was unthinkable when we started. There is also a lot of entrepreneurial energy coming into agriculture. There are about 1000 startups in agriculture and people from marquee backgrounds are coming into the agriculture space to solve long pending niche problems using technology,” Kumar said.
Samunnati Foundation, the non-profit subsidiary of Samunnati, recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with IIT Madras’ Incubation Cell (IITMIC) to develop innovation in agriculture and support agritech startups in their goals. Through this partnership, the organizations will provide incubation support/facilities to entrepreneurial ventures, prepare position papers and propose policy recommendations.
The tie-up will also facilitate research and development in areas such as promotion of alternative crops, adoption of a green agricultural ecosystem including use of green agricultural machinery, solar pumps and others, indigenously developed food processing tech, and other support services for the agricultural community.
Last year, the Chennai-based firm had announced that it has hired investment bankers to raise $100 million for its Series E round. Kumar had said that the company would want to touch one in every four farming families by 2027. The fundraise will give the company much needed runway for expansion as well as to develop the technology and inorganic capabilities, he added.
“About 60-70% would be used for our regular business, both agri finance and agri commerce and about 30-40% will be used for the technology platform that we are building we need to add multiple capabilities as well as hire some senior talent in technology and we will also be looking at some inorganic capabilities as acquisitions,” he had said.
