450 Startups in Agri-tech. Move Towards B2B

NASSCOM, Indian software sector’s mouthpiece, recently unveiled its findings on India’s agritech sector. The report is titled, “Agritech in India – Emerging Trends in 2019.”

The report highlighted the emergence of B2B startups, increasingly unsustainable B2C segment, signs of maturity among the agri-tech stakeholder ecosystem.   

The agri-sector is growing at the 25% a year as some of the global and sector-focused funds are directly investing in it. As of June 2019, the report stated that the sector has received more than $248 million funding, a growth of 300% as compared to the previous year.

Debjani Ghosh, President NASSCOM, said: “India’s agriculture sector is advancing steadily towards digital transformation and the startup ecosystem is playing a critical role here, bringing innovation and disruption.

It’s interesting the report points out a considerable shift from B2C to B2B startups. Corporates and investors are playing a vital role in supporting this with over $200 million investment in B2B startups in the past 18 months, making it as a key revenue generating segments in the overall agritech sector.

The report has demanded more, especially from state governments which have declared agriculture policies. They are: Setting up of catalytic or micro funds (ranging $2 to 14 million ) to spur innovation, offer support through incubation, acceleration, and catalytic funding, curriculum change in agriculture universities, building of a transparent data sharing policy, and engaging with startups in larger projects.

The bigger apprehension among entrepreneurs in the agri-tech start-up world is whether the eco-system will support their growth phase – after 3 years or so.