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HomePosts Tagged "agritech startups"
Agribusiness, Company News, India, Start ups

 It aims to support startups which includes strategic mentoring, field pilot opportunities, rural distribution access, climate impact evaluation guidance, and technical assistance for carbon projects.

SBI Foundation and Villgro announced the launch of the ‘Innovators for Bharat’ portfolio, supporting 9 agricultural start-ups with equity seed funding. SBI Foundation, under its flagship SBIF LEAP (Livelihood and Entrepreneurship Accelerator Program), unveiled the ‘Innovators for Bharat’ initiative last year, which collaborates with high-impact incubators providing support to start-ups working to address the most pressing development challenges in the country. Partnering with Villgro, one of India’s foremost social enterprise incubators, in September 2023, the initiative introduced the Agri-tech Cohort under Innovators for Bharat. The goal of this Cohort is to identify and support Startups working on cutting-edge solutions to improve agricultural productivity, build climate resilience and sustainability for the agriculture sector in India, taking their innovations to the ground.

Through their support for 9 startups, SBI Foundation and Villgro aim to surpass the goal of benefiting 10,000 farmers by not only enhancing livelihoods and incomes but also bringing 60,000 acres of land under sustainable cultivation and preventing 15,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions.

The initiative is supporting these startups addressing crucial points across the agriculture value chain:

Bharat Rohan: Utilizes drone-based hyperspectral imagery to offer farm advisory, optimizing soil health, yields, and profitability.

RAAV Techlabs: Offers near-infrared technology devices for objective testing of quality parameters in produce, thereby reducing food losses.

Navork Innovations: Tackles post-harvest losses with a plant extract-based formulation that extends the shelf life of highly perishable produce like mushrooms and bananas.

Marut Drones: Provides drones and software for multiple farming services, including spraying, direct seeding, crop health monitoring, and advisory.

GreyMatter (Upaz): Supplies farmers with high-quality inputs and affordable credit through a ‘Community Commerce and Financing Model’ integrating microfinance and services across the agriculture value chain.

Carbon Masters: Implements a circular economy solution converting organic waste into Bio-CNG and organic fertilizers.

Raheja Solar: Develops renewable energy-based solar dryers to reduce post-harvest losses and processes and sells its own dried food using produce bought back from farmers.

Ekosight: Provides a portable soil testing device for assessing soil quality and offering accurate advice on fertilizer application and precision farming.

Pasidi Panta: Develops an end-to-end commodity value chain service for farmers, focusing on residue-free chili production using Integrated Pest Management.

Support provided to these companies includes strategic mentoring, field pilot opportunities, rural distribution access, climate impact evaluation guidance, and technical assistance for carbon projects. Additionally, the program helps startups develop financially stable models, secure debt financing, and raise awareness about their innovations.

“This programme serves to reinforce our commitment to strengthening India’s agriculture sector – a bedrock of the nation’s heritage and economy. This year’s Independence Day echoes the spirit of ‘Viksit Bharat’ – a vision of a progressive, inclusive and empowered India. In light of this, Innovators for Bharat, seeks to harness the entrepreneurial spirit of our country’s startups. Beyond financial support, we will provide the selected startups access to our network of banking experts for mentorship, Civil Society Organizations and other key stakeholders,” said Sanjay Prakash, Managing Director, SBI Foundation.

“This programme was launched with a strong focus on climate-resilience and sustainability. These are both imperative to safeguard the country’s agriculture sector from increasingly variable weather patterns stemming from climate change. Combining Villgro and SBI Foundation’s synergies has allowed us to onboard unique start-ups with innovative technologies addressing challenges across the agricultural value chain. We are excited to gear up our efforts in supporting these startups as we enter the second phase of the programme and move closer to our goal of building climate resilience while impacting 10,000 farmers,” adds Srinivas Ramanujam, CEO, Villgro.

In the second leg of this program, SBI Foundation and Villgro will be supporting another 5 enterprises with Grant capital with a view to unlocking innovative finance through their partners in the financial ecosystem.

 It aims to support startups which includes

AgroPolicy, Agrotech, India, Start ups

The objective of the G20-DIA is to identify, recognize, and enable the adoption of innovative and impactful digital technologies developed by startups, from G20 nations.

The Ministry for Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), the Nodal Ministry for the G20 Digital Economy Working Group (DEWG) will be organising the G20 Digital Innovation Alliance (G20-DIA) summit in August 2023 in Bangalore. The summit will be held on the sidelines of the DEWG meeting which will be a multi-day programme where top nominated startups from each of the theme areas from all of the G20 countries and the non-member invited countries will showcase their solutions to the global community of investors, mentors, corporates, and other government stakeholders.

The objective of the G20-DIA is to identify, recognize, and enable the adoption of innovative and impactful digital technologies developed by startups, from G20 nations as well as the invited non-member nations, which can address the needs of humanity in the critically important sectors of Agri-tech, Health-tech, Ed-tech, Fin-tech, Secured Digital Infrastructure, and Circular Economy.

Startup products in the aforementioned six themes enabled through Digital Public Goods Infrastructure can create a global population-scale impact and reduce the digital divide and enable sustainable, and inclusive techno-socio-economic development.

The engagement of innovators, entrepreneurs, startups, corporations, investors, mentors, and other ecosystem stakeholders will lead to the speedy acceptance of the platform that India plans to offer through the G20-DIA.

The G20-DIA Summit will bring together the key players in the innovation ecosystem from both G20 member countries and the invited non-member countries in order to recognise and support startups creating cutting-edge digital solutions in the six themes that bridge the digital divide between different segments of humanity and advance the world economy.

During India’s G20 presidency, MeitY’s focus is on three priority areas, namely Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), Cyber Security, and Digital Skill Development, together with the Stay Safe Online campaign and DIA programme under the DEWG. MeitY aims to carry forward the vision of the digital transformation of the global digital economy for public service delivery through innovation and a future-ready digitally skilled workforce in a secure cyber environment.

The objective of the G20-DIA is to

India, Start ups

Agcubator will provide selected startups with access to mentorship from prominent experts from the domain.

PedalStart, a Gurugram-based startup, a hybrid model of incubators and accelerators, is launching Agcubator, the latest initiative for Agri-Tech-based start-ups. This programme is a cohort designed specifically for Agri-Tech domain startups from around the globe to bring them under one platform. The cohort will support start-ups and help them grow and develop in the ecosystem.

Agcubator will provide selected startups with access to mentorship from prominent experts from the domain. The cohort brings together some of the brightest minds in agriculture and technology to drive innovation and growth in the sector.

Nitin Jain, Co-Founder & CEO of Of’Business, Sanjay Sacheti, Country Head- India of Olam Agri, Varun Khurana, Founder & CEO of Otipy, Vamsi Udayagiri, Founder & CEO of Hesa and others are on boarded as mentors who will bestow the startups with their experiences and support.  Agritech Expert & Angel Investor, Ramakrishnan M would be joining the cohort as Programme Lead and put in his valuable insights in this 6 week’s cohort.

Manas Pal, Co-Founder, PedalStart, said “After the success of our previous cohort, Zero-to-One, which was a cohort structured for early-stage startups from different domains, and now we are ready to launch another cohort, Agcubator, a platform to support Agri-tech startups industry. The cohort will be a platform for startups to revolutionize their journey in the shadow of domain experts. We are looking forward to onboarding startups from the domain to seed and accelerating their journey.

Twenty startups will embark on a 6-week journey with Agcubator after undergoing a thorough 3-stage screening process. The process begins with registering on the waiting list, followed by a review of the application, and finally, a connection with the analysts for onboarding.

The cohort will be a great opportunity for entrepreneurs to network with industry experts, investors, and other startups across the globe which will be a potential source for partnerships and collaborations.

The cohort is open to taking applications from different sectors of Agri-tech like Agbiotech, Precision Agriculture / Farm Management Software, AgRobotics / Hardware Solutions / Farm Infrastructure / Farm Mechanization / Farm Automation, Food quality / Safety / Traceability, Processing, Logistics & Warehousing, Animal Related, Agrifintech, and few others.

Agcubator will provide selected startups with access

AgroPolicy, Finance, India, Schemes - Govt, Start ups

The fund is aimed at building innovative and effective agritech solutions for farmers to improve access to market linkages and yields.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today announced in her Union Budget 2023 speech that an Agriculture Accelerator Fund will be set up to encourage agritech start-ups. An Agriculture Accelerator Fund will be set up to encourage agri-startups by young entrepreneurs and agri startups in rural areas.

Sitharaman said that the fund is aimed at building innovative and effective agritech solutions for farmers to improve access to market linkages and yields.

“The fund will aim at bringing innovative and affordable solutions for challenges faced by farmers. It will also bring in modern technology to transform agricultural practices, increase productivity and profitability,” said the finance minister.

The fund is aimed at building innovative

AgroPolicy, Agrotech, India, R&D, Start ups

To accelerate the journey of indigenous solutions from India for building a sustainable world.

Fifteen Startups selected in the first-of-its-kind product accelerator program for innovators developing sustainable solutions will soon start working towards solutions in the healthcare and agriculture domains.

This is the first cohort of the NIRMAN Accelerator Program launched by Start-ups Incubation and Innovation Centre (SIIC) IIT Kanpur. The accelerator program supported by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India, through its NIDHI scheme portfolio, will help solve challenges in the product development journey of indigenous innovations. The programme takes a leaf out of the best methods and key insights from the 2 very successful national initiatives of SIIC IIT Kanpur, The Ventilator Project and Mission Bharat O2.

The calls for the programme were launched in July 2022, and the start-ups were selected through rigorous screening. This was followed by training, including residential workshops for getting the start-ups geared up to meet the challenges ahead.

The first 3-day residential workshop for the startups provided the startups with a better understanding of funding opportunities, compliance & business opportunities for health tech and agritech startups, Angel and VC funding for early-stage startups, compliance through Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), ISO and Government e-Marketplace (GeM) and ethos associated with team building. Representatives from VCs like growX, YourNest, corporates like DS Group, and government agencies like TDB, GeM shared their insights and learning with the startup founders in this program. Startups under the cohort got opportunities to interact with eminent speakers from government agencies, Angel Investors and VC communities, and prominent industry leaders.

Anita Gupta, Head NEB Division DST, underlined this program’s importance in strengthening the country’s innovation ecosystem and creating startups focusing on areas of national importance.

Regarding the program’s response, Abhay Karandikar, Director IIT Kanpur, said, “NIRMAN Accelerator Program is expected to expedite the journey of startups developing cutting-edge, technology-driven innovations in these critical areas from prototype to market.”

The cohort was encouraged to address the pertinent challenges of the Indian hardware sector through their innovative solutions. The accelerator program will enable comprehensive nurturing and fostering of the start-ups through effective mentoring and market access, and with the completion of the training period this month, the start-ups will get launched in their journey towards indigenous innovations.

The programme can build focused solutions to accelerate the journey of indigenous solutions from India to build a sustainable world.

To accelerate the journey of indigenous solutions