AgroWave: An agritech start-up empowering farmers
December 14th 2020, Gurugram: AgroWave is an agritech start-up launched by, IIT Delhi graduate, Anu Meena in 2017 and is based in Gurugram. This platform establishes technology-driven mobile pickup stations (MPS) in villages at farm-gates from where it collects the produce. The farmers have to download the AgroWave app and they receive notification about the MPS timings and other information. AgroWave later does a customised sorting, grading, and packaging to maintain the quality. The startup then uses its tech-enabled logistics and delivers the produce to customers for free of cost. AgroWave basically buys the produce directly from farmers and sells it to small mandis and businesses such as hotels, retailers, restaurants, caterers, canteens, PGs, and even individual customers.
India’s agriculture sector, which employs more than half of India’s overall population, has been facing a crisis on many fronts. One of the many difficulties faced by the agriculture community is supplying the produce, especially fruits and vegetables, before it perishes. Anu also realised that there were many services delivering products to the doorstep of customers in metros, but there was no such service for farmers in rural areas. The urge she had became her motivation to look for solutions. Hence, IIT Delhi graduate Anu Meena saw it all very closely and decided to solve it with her startup, AgroWave.
Anu says that she started up with zero investment and worked on the business model and technology alone. Her pilot project grabbed investors’ interest and the startup raised an undisclosed amount of funding in 2017 from Daffodil Software Pvt Limited. Later on, Agrowave raised $500K in Pre-Series A funding from US-based angel investor Sekhar Puli which was invested in creating an integrated supply network of mobile pickup stations
“It’s important to build trust with farmers to work with them. Our MPS model is helping us build trust with small and medium farmers in rural areas. It is helping them to sell the produce easily through our mobile app,” says Anu.
The startup is clocking about Rs 2.5 crore monthly revenue and has onboarded more than 3,500 people from across regions such as Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Maharashtra. In September this year, the Gurugram-based startup raised close to $500,000 in funding from US-based investor Sekhar Puli. The company is currently working towards scaling its MPS model in more villages and is also building a price prediction model at the supply side for the farmers, for which the company will expand its technology team.
The aim of AgroWave is to drive change in farmers’ lives by giving them better returns. “We are focused to build strong technology to create a more efficient supply chain,” she says.
